Jto  iltemortam 

Ir.  SUrl?ari>  K.  (Hotter 


WORKINGMEN 
AND  THE  CHURCH 


ROBERT  F.  COYLE,  D.  D., 
v^ 

Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly 
Author  of  "Foundation  Stonei  of  Christianity,"  etc. 


SANTA    BARBARA.    CALIF, 

1903 
THE    WJNONA    PUBLISHING    COMPANY 

CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS  WINONA  LAKE,  INDIANA 


COPYRIGHT,  1903 

BY 
THE   WINONA   PUBLISHING  CO. 


WORKINGMEN     AND 
THE    CHURCH 


PREFATORY  NOTE. 

HE  addresses  in  this  little  volume  were 
delivered  in  Oakland,  California,  on 
Sunday  evenings  seven  years  ago  to 
immense  audiences  of  workingmen 
and  others  interested  in  the  social  movements 
of  our  times.  They  are  now  revised  and  given 
to  a  larger  public  with  the  hope  that  they  may 
contribute  something  to  a  better  understanding 
between  the  church  and  the  laboring  masses. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


YEAST— UNREST  AMONG  WORKING- 
MEN. 

N "NOTHING  is  more  in  evidence  to-day 
I  than  the  unrest  of  the  masses.  Our 
newspapers  and  magazines  are  con- 
tinually calling  our  attention  to  it. 
The  air  is  full  of  discontent.  It  prevails 
among  artisans  and  farmers  and  laboring  men 
from  sea  to  sea.  I  know  there  is  an  optimism 
which  would  have  us  believe  that  things  are 
going  on  quite  smoothly;  that  everything  is 
full  of  promise;  that  prevalent  agitations  and 
dissatisfactions  are  greatly  overdrawn;  and 
that  there  is  no  reason  why  existing  conditions 
should  disturb  our  peace  of  mind.  But  that 
kind  of  optimism  comes  from  a  conscience  that 
is  dead  and  a  heart  that  cannot  feel.  It  belies 
facts  and  throws  itself  stupidly  and  stubbornly 
athwart  the  path  of  progress  and  reform. 

With  struggles  between  employers  and  em- 
ployed multiplying  every  year;  with  organiza- 
tion going  on  among  workingmen  as  never  be- 


TDdorftinsmen  anb  tbe  (Tburcb 

fore;  with  farmers  combining  until  their  vari- 
ous alliances  have  a  membership  of  millions; 
with  hundreds  of  thousands  of  employes  in- 
volved in  strikes  within  the  last  decade;  with 
troops  called  out  to  suppress  labor  riots  in  sev- 
eral states  recently;  with  tidings  of  outbreaks 
and  growing  discontent  among  laboring  men 
in  Europe,  brought  to  us  with  nearly  every 
morning  paper — with  all  these  things  coming 
to  our  knowledge,  it  is  folly,  nay  more,  it  is 
an  easy-going,  self-complacent  kind  of  wicked- 
ness to  say  that  there  is  no  unrest  worth  speak- 
ing about.  It  is  the  duty  of  good  men  every- 
where to  see  these  facts  and  consider  them  and 
be  profoundly  concerned  about  them. 

Sometimes,  to  minify  these  symptoms  and 
make  them  seem  as  insignificant  as  possible,  it 
is  said  that  they  are  thrown  to  the  surface  by 
professional  agitators,  by  imported  anarchists, 
and  by  doctrinaire  social  economists,  whose 
stock-in-trade  is  the  complaints  and  ferment  of 
the  masses.  Their  bread  and  butter  and  the 
gratification  of  their  ambitions,  we  are  told,  de- 
pend upon  the  discontent  of  the  people.  Muzzle 
these  agitators,  they  say,  and  all  would  be 
peace.  But  to  affirm  or  to  imply  that  the  great 
mass  of  workingmen  are  so  ignorant  or  so  pli- 


Tidorfunamen  anfc  tbe  Gburcb 

able  as  to  be  profoundly  stirred  by  a  little  hand- 
ful of  social  reformers  or  revolutionists,  is  to 
bring  against  them  a  charge  which  I  cannot 
for  a  moment  endorse.  Well  has  it  been  said 
that,  "To  hold  a  few  leaders  responsible  for 
all  this  fever  and  tumult  is  like  holding  the  pim- 
ples on  the  skin  responsible  for  the  poison  in 
the  blood,  or  the  flying  chimney-pots  for  the 
force  of  the  gale."  Back  of  all  this  unrest 
which  is  finding  expression  in  so  many  ways 
we  may  be  assured  there  is  an  adequate  cause. 

A  few  of  the  manifold  constituents  of  this 
cause  I  shall  now  endeavor  to  point  out. 

First,  there  is  the  growing  intelligence  of  the 
masses.  These  men  of  the  hammer  and  the 
saw  and  the  spade  have  learned  to  think.  We 
live  in  an  age  when  the  sun  of  general  infor- 
mation has  risen  so  high  that  its  beams  no 
longer  cling  about  the  mountain-peaks  of  rank 
and  nobility,  but  find  their  way  down  into  the 
lowly  valleys  of  plain,  homely  toil  as  well.  Our 
public  schools,  our  ubiquitous  newspapers,  and 
our  best  literature  of  all  sorts  have  been  edu- 
cating the  people,  until  to-day  many  a  man  at 
the  bench  or  the  anvil  is  able  to  think  broadly 
and  profoundly  upon  all  great  questions  of  so- 
cial and  industrial  and  religious  life.  Now, 


Morfeingmen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

thought  is  always  a  disturbing  element  in  the 
best  sense.  It  was  awakening  thought  among 
the  nobles  and  gentry  and  clergy  of  400  years 
ago  that  caused  the  reformation,  and  it  is 
awakening  thought  among  the  masses  that  is 
doing  much  to  produce  the  unrest  of  the  pres- 
ent time. 

Let  a  man  learn  to  think  and  his  horizon 
enlarges.  With  an  increase  of  intelligence 
comes  an  increase  of  wants.  A  man  who  is 
wholly  ignorant  lives  in  a  very  small  world, 
and  very  little  will  satisfy  him;  but  let  him 
acquire  the  ability  to  read,  let  him  become  edu- 
cated, and  a  little  will  not  satisfy  him.  An 
illiterate  negro  is  content  with  a  watermelon, 
but  an  intelligent  negro  wants  to  go  to  Con- 
gress or  get  into  some  conspicuous  position  or 
other.  And  in  this  respect  he  is  in  nowise  dif- 
ferent from  his  white  brother.  The  more  a 
man  knows  the  more  he  craves.  If,  as  Dr. 
Strong  says,  the  workingman  has  twice  as 
much  in  his  home  to-day  as  his  grandfather 
had,  he  knows  ten  times  as  much  and  there- 
fore wants  ten  times  as  much.  Broaden  a 
man's  horizon,  enlarge  his  manhood,  elevate 
his  tastes,  increase  his  desires,  without  at  the 
same  time  giving  him  the  ability  to  add  to  his 


anfr  tbe  Cburcb 


comforts,  and  you  make  him  unhappy  and  dis- 
contented if  not  rebellious.  This,  in  consider- 
able part,  I  believe,  accounts  for  the  disturbed 
social  conditions  of  the  day. 

Then  there  is  the  sharp  contrast  between  pov- 
erty and  wealth.  The  masses  see  it  everywhere. 
It  thrusts  itself  upon  them  at  every  turn.  In 
the  city  of  New  York  there  are  1,103  million- 
aires with  fortunes  ranging  from  one  to  one 
hundred  and  fifty  millions  each,  while  three- 
fourths  of  the  population  of  that  city  live  in 
tenement  houses.  Of  these  tenements  Jacob 
Riis  tells  us  that  there  are  37,000,  "and  more 
than  1,200,000  persons  call  them  home."  The 
story  of  these  tenements,  as  he  tells  it  in  his 
book  entitled,  "How  the  Other  Half  Lives,"  is 
black  enough  to  send  a  chill  even  to  the  hardest 
heart.  It  would  seem  impossible  for  such 
things  to  be  true  in  a  civilized,  much  less  in  a 
Christian  country.  But  they  are  true,  and  the 
condition  of  things  in  New  York  is  duplicated 
in  other  large  cities,  and  more  than  duplicated 
in  London,  the  metropolis  of  the  world,  as 
every  reader  of  Booth's  "In  Darkest  England" 
knows.  In  these  centers  of  population  Dives 
and  Lazarus,  magnificence  and  misery,  surfeit 
and  starvation,  stand  over  against  each  other 


•CdorfUngmen  anO  tbe  dburcb 

in  constant  contrast.  It  is  only  a  step  from  the 
wretched  quarters  of  the  poor  laborer  in  New 
York  who  cannot  get  a  day's  work  to  the  pala- 
tial residence  of  the  millionaire  who  builds  a 
stable  for  his  horses  at  a  cost  of  $700,000.  Is 
it  any  wonder  that  such  a  state  of  things  pro- 
duces bitterness  and  hatred  and  unrest? 

With  this  sharp  contrast  before  their  eyes 
continually  the  workingmen  have  been  very 
naturally  forced  to  the  conclusion  that  they  do 
not  begin  to  receive  a  just  proportion  of  the 
product  of  their  labor.  Who  will  undertake  to 
say  that  they  do,  when  we  are  reliably  informed 
that  the  annual  average  wage  of  the  working- 
man  in  this  country  is  less  than  $500  a  year  to 
pay  for  rent  and  fuel  and  food  and  clothing 
and  lights  and  medicine  and  amusements  and 
everything  else?  When  the  late  Frances  Wil- 
lard  tells  us  that  in  Chicago  under  the  "sweat- 
ing" system  there  are  women  forced  to  make 
twelve  shirts  for  seventy-five  cents  and  furnish 
their  own  thread,  and  others  glad  to  work  for 
a  cent  and  a  half  an  hour ;  that  there  are  chil- 
dren in  that  city  working  twelve  hours  a  day 
for  a  dollar  a  week;  when  the  Rev.  L.  A. 
Banks  reveals  to  us  what  He  very  justly  calls 
the  white  slavery  of  Boston,  women  working 

6 


tdorlunomcn  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

sixteen  or  seventeen  hours  a  day  in  the  "sweat 
shops"  for  sixty  cents,  some  of  them  compelled 
to  make  cheap  overcoats  at  four  cents  apiece 
and  knee  pants  for  boys  at  the  rate  of  sixteen 
cents  a  dozen  pairs — when  such  facts  as  these 
are  brought  to  our  attention  it  is  not  hard  to 
convince  ourselves  that  it  is  no  sin  for  the 
working  people  to  be  dissatisfied.  We  must 
feel  that  they  have  good  reason  for  complaint 
and  discontent. 

In  the  third  place,  not  a  little  of  the  preva- 
lent unrest  of  the  masses  is  caused  by  Sunday 
work.  This  is  an  evil  that  is  growing  in  the 
United  States,  and  workingmen  are  crying  out 
against  it  everywhere.  They  are  protesting 
against  it  in  their  conventions,  writing  against 
it  in  their  papers,  and  circulating  petitions  in 
many  parts  of  the  land  to  have  it  stopped ;  and 
because  their  efforts  are  allowed  to  pass  un- 
heeded their  complaints  and  protests  are  be- 
coming bitter.  In  some  of  the  trades  in  our 
great  cities  Sunday  work  "is  all  but  universal," 
and  the  men  in  these  trades  are  required  to  do 
seven  days'  work  for  six  days'  pay.  An  edito- 
rial in  a  Chicago  labor  paper  of  1888  says: 
"The  question  of  closing  the  factories,  work- 
shops and  stores  on  Sunday  is  fast  coming  to 


Worfeingmen  an&  tbe  Cbutcb 

the  front  as  one  of  the  important  questions  of 
the  day.  From  thirty  to  forty  thousand  em- 
ployes in  Chicago  alone  are  compelled  to  work 
for  seven  days  each  week.  How  shall  their 
shackles  be  unloosed  and  the  slaves  set  free? 
.  .  .  Are  the  people  by  their  apathy,  their 
avarice  and  selfishness,  willing  to  blight  the 
prospects  of  the  working  classes  of  America 
by  condemning  them  to  a  slavery  that  knows 
no  day  of  rest  ?"  How  far  Christian  people  are 
responsible  for  Sunday  work  I  shall  not  under- 
take to  say,  but  not  a  little  of  it,  I  fear,  must  be 
laid  at  their  door. 

In  the  fourth  place,  some  of  the  prevalent 
unrest  of  the  masses  must  be  attributed  to  a 
frequent  perversion  of  justice  in  favor  of  the 
rich.  It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  the  friend- 
less poor  man  is  dealt  with  very  summarily  in 
our  courts,  while  the  man  .who  has  money  can 
secure  delay  after  delay.  Washington  Gladden 
puts  it  very  pithily  when  he  says :  "The  man 
who  steals  a  ham  from  a  freight  car  goes  to 
jail;  the  man  who  steals  the  railroad  goes  to 
the  United  States  Senate."  A  great  corpora- 
tion can  violate  city  ordinances  and  State  laws 
with  comparative  impunity,  but  if  a  poor  man 
does  it  he  is  promptly  punished.  Says  a  writer 

8 


Worfcfnamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

in  John  Swinton's  Paper  of  New  York :  "When 
laboring  men  violate  any  law  of  the  money 
power  it  is  anarchy,  and  the  lawbreakers  are 
imprisoned  or  hanged.  But  when  the  money 
power  violates  all  laws,  both  human  and  divine, 
there  is  neither  penalty  nor  remedy." 

Now  so  long  as  there  is  any  color  of  truth 
in  such  words  as  these  it  is  bound  to  produce 
a  spirit  of  unrest  and  rebellion  in  the  breasts 
of  the  poor. 

In  the  fifth  place  much  of  the  discontent  of 
the  day  is  caused  by  erroneous  doctrines  of 
labor.  In  some  of  the  letters  which  I  received 
from  workingmen  it  is  affirmed,  or  implied, 
that  "All  wealth  is  produced  by  labor."  This, 
we  are  told,  is  the  doctrine  of  Karl  Marx,  and 
it  has  filtered  down  into  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple on  two  continents  and  is  greatly  disturb- 
ing the  masses  at  the  present  time.  Now,  we 
must  be  just.  I  do  not  believe  that  labor  is  the 
producer  of  all  wealth.  Take  the  brain  power 
that  organizes  labor  and  multiplies  its  capacity 
to  produce,  some  thirty,  some  sixty,  some  an 
hundred  fold — is  not  it  a  source  of  value  and 
wealth?  Take  the  brain  power  that  invents 
.and  lays  hold  of  the  forces  of  nature  and  har- 
nesses them  to  the  chariot  of  commerce  and 


UQorfcinomen  a^  tbe  Cburcb 

civilization — is  not  it  a  producer  of  wealth? 
Take  trustworthiness,  a  purely  moral  quality, 
and  has  it  not  a  distinct  economic  value  ?  Two 
men  in  a  shop  may  have  the  same  amount  of 
ability  and  intelligence  and  be  equally  indus- 
trious, but  if  one  is  more  trustworthy  than  the 
other  he  is  one  who  is  chosen  for  a  position  of 
responsibility.  The  fact  that  he  can  be  re- 
lied upon  is  an  element  of  value,  but  it  was  not 
produced  by  labor. 

Here,  let  us  suppose,  are  half  a  dozen  men. 
They  work  hard  and  faithfully,  but  they  do 
not  seem  to  get  on.  What  they  produce  is  not 
marketable.  Nobody  cares  for  it.  But  there 
comes  along  a  seventh  with  superior  intelli- 
gence and  skill.  He  devises  plans  for  a  higher 
grade  of  work.  He  teaches  and  directs  them, 
and  the  result  is  that  what  they  produce  now  is 
worth  twice  as  much  as  that  which  they  pro- 
duced before.  People  want  it.  It  finds  a  ready 
market.  Now,  would  it  be  just  for  the  six  to 
say  that  their  labor  was  the  cause  of  it  all  ?  Did 
not  the  skill  of  the  seventh  produce  half  of  it, 
and  if  he  should  claim  as  his  own  a  part  of  the 
increase  caused  by  his  intelligence  would  the 
six  have  any  reasonable  ground  to  find 
fault  ?  I  believe  that  every  school  teacher  that 

10 


TKaorfcfmjmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

awakens  noble  ambitions  in  the  minds  of  his 
pupils  and  sends  them  out  into  life  with  holy 
purposes ;  every  author  whose  books  make  men 
and  women  better ;  every  preacher  of  righteous- 
ness who  stimulates  his  fellowmen  to  strive 
after  honesty  and  purity  and  exalted  character ; 
every  individual,  high  or  low,  that  inculcates 
right  principles  of  living;  every  mother  that 
makes  holy  impressions  on  her  child  and  hands 
hirn  over  to  society  strong  and  true — I  believe 
that  every  one  of  these  is  helping  directly  to 
add  to  the  world's  wealth.  When,  therefore, 
labor  claims  to  be  the  creator  of  it  all  it  is  go- 
ing too  far.  It  is  making  claims  that  will  not 
bear  the  light.  It  is  easy  to  see  how  this  erro- 
neous doctrine  stirs  up  discontent  and  foments 
trouble  among  the  masses,  and  for  the  sake  of 
their  own  cause  they  cannot  too  soon  eliminate 
it  from  their  minds. 

Then  on  the  other  side  is  the  equally  erro- 
neous doctrine  that  labor  is  simply  a  com- 
modity, thus  putting  it  upon  an  equality  with 
the  lifeless  articles  of  the  store  and  shop.  If 
labor  is  only  a  commodity,  only  something  to 
buy  and  sell,  a  marketable  thing  like  dry  goods 
or  groceries,  or  iron  or  wheat,  then  of  course  it 
may  be  subject  to  the  fluctuations  of  trade  and 

ii 


TKHorfeinamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

be  controlled  by  the  principles  of  supply  and 
demand.  But  labor  is  more  than  a  commodity, 
it  is  more  than  a  thing  to  be  bought  and  sold. 
It  is  a  commodity  plus  a  man.  It  is  insepara- 
bly linked  to  a  human  being  and  should  there- 
fore be  dealt  with  according  to  that  divine  law 
which  relates  every  man  to  his  brother  man. 
The  laborer  is  first  of  all  and  last  of  all  and 
above  all  a  man,  and  it  is  because  this  funda- 
mental fact  is  too  often  lost  sight  of  that  his 
cry  of  indignation  gathers  volume  every  year. 
Having  thus  touched  briefly  upon  some  of 
the  things  which  are  causing  the  popular  un- 
rest of  the  day,  let  me  now  dwell  for  a  moment 
or  two  upon  the  significance  of  it.  What  does 
it  mean  and  whither  does  it  point?  It  means 
radical  changes  in  our  social  order.  The 
masses  to  be  reckoned  with  now  are  very  dif- 
ferent from  the  masses  of  the  past.  They  read 
and  think  and  philosophize,  and  intelligence 
can  no  more  be  kept  down  and  hushed  into  un- 
complaining acquiescence  than  the  river  can  be 
kept  from  the  sea.  It  must  rise,  as  fire  flames 
upward  toward  its  source  in  the  sun.  It  has 
the  weapons  of  thought,  of  agitation,  of  educa- 
tion, and  it  is  learning  to  wield  them  with 
power.  It  is  moulding  public  opinion,  it  is 

12 


"TOlorWnsmen  an&  tfee  Cburcb 

creating  sentiment,  and  one  of  these  days  that 
sentiment  will  crystallize  into  deeds.  To-day 
the  masses  rule.  Numbers  weigh  as  well  as 
count.  The  people  hold  the  future  in  their 
hands,  and  the  people  are  rising.  Politicians 
are  beginning  to  listen  to  them  with  a  great 
deal  of  respect.  The  rich,  the  well-to-do,  the 
men  and  women  of  leisure  are  of  course  con- 
servative. They  are  well  enough  satisfied  with 
things  as  they  are.  They  are  in  favor  of  let- 
ting well  enough  alone.  "Hence  it  is,"  says 
Dr.  Strong,  "that  new  ideas,  whether  political 
or  religious,  generally  gain  currency  first 
among  the  poor."  And  new  ideas  are  working. 
The  yeast  of  popular  discontent  is  fermenting. 
What  the  outcome  will  be  no  one  can  foresee 
in  detail,  but  that  great  social  changes  must 
soon  appear,  few,  I  think,  will  undertake  to 
question. 

This  unrest  means  progress.  It  means  better 
things  to  come.  Out  of  this  disturbed  social 
atmosphere  there  will  emerge  a  clearer  sky.  It 
is  when  some  angel  troubles  the  waters  that 
they  become  curative  and  bring  healing  to  the 
people.  There  is  nothing  so  much  to  be  feared 
as  stagnation.  It  is  the  breeding  place  of 
death.  But  when  old  shells  begin  to  burst,  and 

13 


TJdorMnomen  an&  tbe  Gburcb 

old  theories  begin  to  explode,  and  old  institu- 
tions begin  to  crack,  it  means  the  swelling  of 
life ;  and  the  advent  of  new  life  always  means 
pain.  See  how  it  rends  the  earth  to  make 
room  for  its  expanding  roots  and  splits  the 
bud  and  throws  off  the  last  year's  leaf.  No 
springtime  can  ever  come  to  society,  or  to  the 
church,  or  to  the  individual  without  a  ruthless 
breaking  up  and  overturning  of  old  arrange- 
ments. Agitation  is  the  sign  of  life,  and  where 
life  is  there  is  always  hope. 

This  unrest  means  the  coming  of  Christ.  The 
Lord  Jesus  is  struggling  into  his  world,  and 
consequently  things  are  being  shaken.  He  never 
can  enter  anywhere  without  causing  a  commo- 
tion. When  he  came  away  yonder  in  the  early 
centuries  there  was  trouble.  Kings  trembled 
on  their  thrones,  little  innocents  were  massa- 
cred, wails  of  anguish  went  up  over  the  hills  of 
Judah,  and  all  Jerusalem  was  wild  with  ex- 
citement. When  he  came  in  the  days  of  the 
reformation  there  was  trouble.  And  this  I 
verily  believe  is  the  meaning  of  the  unrest  to- 
day. 

Christ  is  coming,  not  in  any  literal  and  ma- 
terial sense,  but  in  the  spread  of  his  truth.  His 
spirit  is  getting  into  the  people  and  inspiring 

14 


I 


Morftinamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

them  with  a  mighty  hope.  He  is  moving  them 
to  seek  for  remedies  for  social  ills  causing  them 
to  think  with  their  eyes  toward  the  morning. 
Through  this  organization  and  that,  through 
speech  and  press,  they  are  unconsciously  but 
none  the  less  really  in  quest  of  Christ;  and 
while  they  are  feeling  after  him,  stumbling 
along  toward  the  light,  he  is  finding  them.  The 
influences  of  the  gospel  are  spreading.  The 
principles  of  the  cross  are  working.  Christ's 
kingdom  is  coming.  The  age  is  travailing  in 
pain  with  the  birth  of  a  new  era.  But  let  us 
remember  that  no  social  Olivet  can  ever  be 
reached  but  by  the  way  of  Calvary. 

And  not  only  is  Christ  coming  in  this  way, 
by  the  infusion  of  his  spirit  and  by  the  growth 
of  his  principles,  but  let  me  say  in  conclusion 
to  every  man  among  you  that  it  is  your  privi- 
lege to  have  him  come  to  you  personally,  as  a 
friend,  a  brother,  a  saviour.  He  sees  you  from 
the  mountain  heights.  He  knows  that  the 
winds  are  contrary,  and  that  you  are  toiling  in 
rowing  in  the  fourth  watch  of  the  night,  but 
the  fourth  watch  is  just  on  the  edge  of  day- 
break. He  is  coming  over  the  billows.  Listen, 
and  you  will  hear  his  voice  breaking  through 
the  storm,  "Be  of  good  cheer."  Let  working- 


Worfcfnamen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

men  everywhere  give  him  room  on  the  ship. 
Let  the  hand  that  rules  the  storm  be  on  the 
wheel,  and  the  voyage  will  end  in  triumph. 
There  will  be  a  great  calm. 


16 


II. 

WORKINGMEN  AND  THE  CHURCH. 

IOTHING  in  the  Gospel  is  plainer 
than  that  Jesus  wants  the  toiling 
masses  in  the  church,  and  nothing  in 
our  day  is  more  evident  than  their 
absence  from  it,  especially  from  the  city 
church.  A  distinguished  clergyman,  after 
making  a  careful  and  extended  investigation 
among  the  manufacturing  cities  of  the  east, 
gives  it  as  his  conclusion  that  "church  neglect 
among  the  poorer  classes  is  rapidly  increas- 
ing." Canon  Farrar,  referring  to  the  church 
of  England  in  his  own  country,  declared  sev- 
eral years  ago  that  "not  three  per  cent  of  the 
working  classes,  who  represent  the  great  mass 
of  the  people,  are  regular  or  even  occasional 
communicants." 

It  was  reading  of  this  kind,  together  with 
my  own  observation,  that  led  me  to  prepare 
these  addresses.  I  wanted  to  learn  not  only 
from  writers  upon  social  questions  but  from 
workingmen  themselves.  Information  at  first 
2  17 


Worfcfngmen  an&  tbe  Cfourcb 

hand  from  those  most  immediately  concerned 
was  what  I  desired.  It  seemed  to  me  it  would 
be  instructive  and  tend  to  a  better  understand- 
ing all  round  to  ask  them  to  state  their  side  of 
the  case  and  to  commit  to  writing  their  special 
grievances  and  criticisms. 

Accordingly  the  following  letter  was  ad- 
dressed to  the  president  of  each  of  a  number 
of  labor  organizations: 

"My  Dear  Sir:  Convinced  that  there  is  a 
wide,  and  I  fear  a  growing  gap  between  work- 
ingmen  and  the  church,  and  desiring  to  find  out 
the  cause  thereof,  I  earnestly  and  very  respect- 
fully ask  you  to  assist  me.  I  propose  to  de- 
liver a  series  of  addresses  in  the  near  future 
on  the  church  in  its  relation  to  the  masses, 
and,  so  far  as  possible,  I  want  to  get  at  the 
reason  for  the  separation  between  them.  Why 
do  they  stand  apart?  Will  you  kindly  help 
me  by  answering  the  following  questions: 

1.  What  proportion  of  mechanics  and  labor- 
ing men  of  all  sorts,  according  to  your  ob- 
servation, habitually  stay  away  from  church? 

2.  Are  those  who  stay  away  hostile  to  the 
church  or  simply  indifferent  ? 

3.  If  hostile,  why?    If  indifferent,  why? 


18 


Morfcfnomen  ant>  tbe  (Tburcb 

4.  What  is  the  chief  fault  which  working- 
men  have  to  find  with  the  church  ? 

To  these  inquiries  I  received  a  large  number 
of  replies,  both  official  and  unofficial.  Most  of 
the  answers  were  respectful,  all  of  them  were 
earnest,  and  in  some  of  them  I  was  soundly  lec- 
tured, notably  so  in  a  few  anonymous  com- 
munications. My  mail  greatly  increased.  The 
replies  that  came  from  various  labor  unions 
were  instructive,  and  some  of  them  very 
thoughtful. 

In  these  letters,  along  certain  main  lines,  I 
found  remarkable  and  very  suggestive  agree- 
ment. For  example,  without  exception,  the 
writers  gave  it  as  their  opinion  that  from  two- 
thirds  to  three-fourths  of  the  workingmen  of 
all  classes  habitually  stay  away  from  church. 
From  all  I  am  able  to  see  and  learn  I  should 
say  that  this  is  a  very  conservative  estimate. 
Now,  if  it  is,  then  we  have  two-thirds  of  our 
population  furnishing  only  one-third  of  those 
who  are  brought  directly  under  church  influ- 
ence. Is  not  this  something  for  Christian  peo- 
ple to  consider? 

In  reply  to  the  second  question :  "Are  those 
who  stay  away  hostile  to  the  church  or  simply 


•Qdorfcfnamen  atto  tbe  Cburcb 

indifferent?"  most  of  the  writers  agreed  that 
about  "half  are  hostile  and  half  are  indiffer- 
ent." 

It  was,  however,  in  answering  the  last  ques- 
tion :  "What  is  the  chief  fault  which  working- 
men  have  to  find  with  the  church?"  that  they 
were  most  full  and  explicit.  To  begin  with 
they  found  fault  with  the  doctrines  of  the 
church.  Said  the  Federated  Labor  Union: 
"The  church  teaches  as  a  divine  law  that  labor 
is  a  curse;  that  we  must  be  content  to  suffer 
under  that  curse  because  an  all-wise  and  loving 
Father  placed  it  upon  us ;"  and  it  affirmed  that 
the  logical  outcome  of  this  doctrine  is  the  deg- 
radation of  the  laborer.  This  will  be  news 
to  those  who  may  rightfully  claim  to  have  a 
good  degree  of  knowledge  of  Christian  history. 
I  have  been  in  the  church  all  my  life.  I  have 
read  its  history,  and  I  cannot  allow  such  a 
statement  to  pass  unchallenged.  The  church 
teaches  nothing  more  clearly  than  that  idleness 
is  the  great  mother  of  all  curses,  and  labor  one 
of  the  most  fruitful  sources  of  blessing.  It  is 
indeed  said  in  the  Holy  Scriptures,  "The 
ground  is  cursed  for  thy  sake,"  and,  "In  the 
sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread,"  but  the 
church  is  not  to  be  judged  by  the  letter  of  cer- 

20 


TKflorfcfnsmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

tain  texts  which  have  been  greatly  miscon- 
strued. Let  her  be  judged  by  her  spirit  and 
her  deeds. 

Her  great  leaders  in  every  age  have  come  from 
the  ranks  of  honest  toil.  Jesus  Christ  himself 
was  a  carpenter.  Among  the  mightiest  of  her 
prophets  were  shepherds,  plowmen,  and  herds- 
men; her  first  apostles  were  fishermen;  Paul 
was  a  tent-maker ;  Luther,  her  great  reformer, 
was  a  miner's  son,  and  William  Carey,  her 
first  great  missionary  in  modern  times,  was  a 
cobbler.  I  venture  to  say  that  seventy-five  per- 
cent of  her  preachers  and  leaders  to-day  were 
reared  among  the  lowly.  It  would  be  strange 
indeed  if  the  church  should  regard  as  a  curse 
that  which  has  furnished  her  with  her  best 
blood  and  brains  through  all  the  centuries. 

If  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  as  we  are  told, 
teach  that  labor  is  a  curse,  why  was  it  the  in- 
variable rule  among  the  people  trained  and 
molded  by  those  Scriptures  that  every  boy 
should  be  required  to  learn  a  trade  ?  No  mat- 
ter though  born  in  a  nobleman's  family,  or  of 
royal  descent,  he  had  to  go  to  the  shop  and 
learn  some  handicraft.  And  if  the  church 
teaches  that  labor  is  a  curse,  why  is  it  that 
wherever  she  goes  her  influence  tends  to  dig- 

21 


Morfcingmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

nify  and  elevate  labor?  I  am  willing  enough 
to  admit  that  the  condition  of  labor  in  Christian 
lands  is  far  from  being  what  it  ought  to  be, 
but  it  is  high  and  glorious  compared  with  what 
it  is  in  lands  that  are  not  Christian.  So  that 
our  friends  of  the  Federated  Labor  Union,  if 
they  care  as  much  for  truth  and  justice  as  their 
communication  would  seem  to  indicate,  ought 
to  recall  their  statement  as  to  what  the  church 
teaches  concerning  labor. 

Again,  the  church  is  charged  with  teaching 
that  her  doors  are  the  portals  of  salvation. 
Such  an  accusation  could  of  course  only  be 
brought  maliciously  or  by  those  who  are  not 
informed.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  door ;  by  him  if 
any  man  enter  in  he  shall  be  saved.  That  is 
the  doctrine  of  evangelical  Protestantism  on 
this  point. 

Once  more  the  church  is  condemned  for 
teaching  that  giving  alms  is  charity.  I  incline 
to  the  belief  that  there  is  some  truth  here,  and 
I  may  touch  upon  it  again.  Suffice  it  to  say 
now  that  charity  is  love,  and  that  love  can  be 
satisfied  with  nothing  short  of  self-giving. 

Second,  in  the  letters  which  I  received,  the 
workingmen  found  fault  with  the  church  for 
withholding  part  of  the  truth.  They  affirmed 

22 


THUorfcinamen  anD  tbe  Cburcb 

with  a  good  deal  of  emphasis  that  she  neglects 
the  second  great  law  of  the  kingdom:  "Thou 
shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  In  the 
light  of  existing  facts,  I  do  not  see  how  she 
can  do  other  than  plead  guilty  to  the  charge. 
Taking  her  all  in  all  there  certainly  is  and  has 
been  too  much  priest  and  Levite  and  too  little 
good  Samaritan  in  her  work. 

The  third  item  in  the  indictment  was  that  she 
is  allied  with  those  who  have  money  and  is 
subservient  to  them.  The  president  of  the 
"Lumbermen  and  Longshoremen's  Union" 
wrote  as  follows :  "The  church  always  upholds 
those  who  can  give  money  and  social  power, 
and  will  not  tolerate  its  teachers  when  they  in- 
quire closely  as  to  how  this  money  and  power 
came  into  the  hands  that  gave  it.  The  church 
winks  at  commercial  robbery  and  tells  the  rob- 
ber he  will  be  all  right  if  he  gives  a  portion 
of  his  plunder  to  the  Lord."  Perhaps  there  is 
a  grain  of  truth  even  there.  It  would  be 
strange  if  the  church  were  wholly  free  from 
the  mammonism  of  the  age,  but  I  question  the 
statement  that  the  church  will  not  tolerate  its 
teachers  for  seeking  and  declaring  the  whole 
truth.  So  far  as  my  observation  goes  she  hon- 
ors and  promotes  the  men  who  dare  to  speak 

23 


Worfcfnamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

out.  I  have  heard  many  of  the  ablest  ministers 
in  the  country,  and  I  never  heard  plainer  or 
more  pointed  words  than  they  uttered.  As  a 
class  the  heralds  of  the  cross  are  not  cowards, 
and  their  lips  are  not  sealed  by  any  amount  of 
money  in  the  pews. 

The  fourth  charge  was  social  exclusiveness. 
The  writers  found  fault  with  the  church  for 
upholding  "caste  and  class."  In  this  they  were 
all  agreed.  Now  there  certainly  is  ground  for 
such  a  charge  in  many  churches.  Dr.  Strong 
puts  it  forcibly  when  he  says  that  there  are 
some  in  our  churches  "under  the  impression 
that  'our  sort  of  folks'  would  pretty  nearly  ex- 
haust the  list  of  the  elect ;  they  are  willing  that 
the  masses  should  be  saved,  but  not  in  their 
church  or  by  their  instrumentality."  We  may 
as  well  admit  that  there  are  those  in  our  con- 
gregations who  have  the  faith  of  our  Lord 
Jesus  with  respect  to  persons. 

The  fifth  charge  was  indifference  to  the 
workingmen.  This  is  abundantly  shown,  they 
tell  us,  in  the  ways  already  pointed  out.  The 
president  of  one  labor  union,  the  P.  and  D.  of 
A.  (I  do  not  know  what  these  letters  stand 
for),  made  the  astounding  assertion  that  the 
church  proves  her  indifference  to  workingmen 

24 


TTClorftingmen  ant>  tbe  Cbutcb 

by  sending  money  to  foreign  missions.  Let 
me  say  to  him  and  to  all  others  who  may  be 
like-minded  that  for  every  dollar  contributed 
to  foreign  missions  ten  dollars  comes  back  to 
enrich  the  land  at  home.  I  give  you  an  in- 
stance. It  cost  the  American  Board  fifty  years 
of  missionary  work  and  $1,500,000  to  evangel- 
ize the  Hawaiian  Islands,  whereas  in  that 
length  of  time  America  has  received  from  Ha- 
waii about  $6,000,000  a  year  in  trade.  Just  as 
soon  as  the  heathen  are  Christianized  they  want 
the  products  of  Christian  civilization,  and  it 
ought  not  to  require  very  much  keenness  to  see 
how  this  blesses  labor.  I  must  say,  however, 
that  beyond  question  the  charge  of  indifference 
to  the  workingmen  is  in  a  measure  sustained 
by  hard  fact. 

The  last  charge  was  inconsistency.  I  was 
told  again  and  again,  and  with  a  good  deal  of 
bitterness  in  some  letters,  that  church  members 
do  not  practice  what  they  profess ;  that  many 
of  them  are  hypocrites  and  scoundrels.  One 
writer  declared  that  he  would  rather  deal  with 
a  saloonkeeper  than  a  church  member.  While 
this  charge  of  inconsistency  is  greatly  over- 
worked and  the  inferences  drawn  from  it  most- 
ly unwarrantable,  yet  I  shall  not  attempt  to 

25 


Worfcingmen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

deny  it.  In  the  face  of  what  so  often  thrusts 
itself  upon  my  attention  I  cannot.  It  fills  me 
with  sorrow  and  humiliation  to  look  upon  some 
around  me  who  bear  the  Christian  name.  It 
would  be  a  comfort  not  to  know  that  they  pro- 
fess to  be  Christians. 

But  I  would  not  dare  to  have  my  own  life 
judged  by  the  standard  of  perfect  consistency. 
I  am  too  conscious  of  sin  and  failure  every  day 
of  my  life  for  that.  When  I  think  of  Christ 
and  think  of  myself  I  am  sometimes  almost  in 
despair.  The  distance  between  us  in  point  of 
perfectness  of  character  is  vastly  greater  than 
that  between  the  first  streak  of  the  dawn  and 
the  full  splendor  of  noon.  But  I  encourage  my- 
self with  the  thought  that  the  dawn  is  on  the 
way  to  the  meridian  glory,  and  so,  I  am  sure, 
do  my  Christian  brethren. 

Yes,  fellow-men,  there  is  counterfeit  coin  in 
the  church.  We  admit  it  with  sadness,  but  the 
critics  of  the  church  ought  to  know  that  a  coun- 
terfeit is  always  a  copy  of  that  which  is  gen- 
uine and  therefore  an  infallible  proof  that  the 
genuine  exists.  They  do  not  condemn  all 
money  because  they  sometimes  get  a  spurious 
dollar.  They  are  not  foolish  enough  to  form 
their  estimate  of  money  from  the  bogus  coin 

26 


Worftingmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

which  some  sharper  palms  off  upon  them.  A 
man  would  be  crazy  to  repudiate  the  currency 
of  the  United  States  because  he  was  taken  in 
by  some  smart  imposter.  Wise  men,  honest 
men,  just  men,  form  their  judgments  from  the 
good  and  not  from  the  bad.  There  are  pure 
and  genuine  men  and  women  in  every  church, 
at  the  center  what  they  are  on  the  surface,  ex- 
emplary in  life,  true  as  steel,  faithful  as  the 
stars,  the  very  salt  of  the  earth,  and  their  num- 
ber is  larger  than  we  think.  Look  at  the  church 
through  them.  Judge  the  tree,  not  by  its  rotten 
specimens  and  its  windfalls,  but  by  the  apples 
that  are  sound. 

As  a  matter  of  fact  we  find  in  the  church 
and  in  everything  else  just  what  we  have  a 
taste  for  finding.  On  the  same  landscape  the 
crow  finds  carrion,  the  hog  finds  mire,  the  bee 
finds  honey,  and  the  duck  finds  water.  Instinct 
leads  them  to  that  which  is  most  in  agreement 
with  their  own  nature.  It  is  so  among  men. 
The  impure  editor  of  an  impure  newspaper 
scents  most  readily  any  trial,  or  scandal,  or 
town  gossip  that  promises  a  large  amount  of 
moral  filth.  He  gloats  over  it  as  a  vulture  does 
over  a  dead  ass  in  the  mountains.  The  first 
thing  the  old  sot  sees  when  he  comes  to  the  city 

27 


Worfeinamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

is  the  saloon.  What  we  see  most  easily  is  a 
revelation  of  what  we  are.  It  is  a  reflection  of 
what  is  back  in  the  soul.  The  libertine  sees 
nothing  but  easy  virtue  in  the  world.  The 
critic  sees  nothing  but  imperfection,  the  rogue 
nothing  but  dishonesty,  the  hypocrite  nothing 
but  unreality,  and  the  prejudiced  man  sees 
everything  twisted.  Hence  I  am  always  a  little 
suspicious  of  the  people  who  so  readily  detect 
nothing  but  inconsistency  in  the  church.  Christ 
always  saw  what  was  best  in  men;  he  saw  it 
even  among  Pharisees  and  church  members, 
and  therefore  proved  himself  to  be  the  world's 
great  Best  One. 

In  all  the  letters  received  from  workingmen 
it  is  only  just  to  say  that  I  found  not  a  syllable 
against  Christ  or  his  gospel.  Their  grievance 
was  against  the  church.  They  had  no  fault  to 
find  with  Christianity,  so  far  as  I  could  dis- 
cover, but  only  with  "Churchianity,"  as  it  has 
been  called.  It  was  implied  that  if  the  church 
was  only  true  to  Jesus  and  his  teachings  there 
would  be  no  separation  between  her  and  the 
masses.  They  distinguished  sometimes  very 
sharply  between  the  institutionalisms  that  have 
been  built  up  around  the  truth  and  the  truth 
itself,  and  the  church  needs  to  make  the  dis- 

28 


TKflorfeinamen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

tinction  also.  She  is  great  enough  not  only  to 
bear  criticism,  but  she  should  take  it  thank- 
fully. For  her  own  sake  and  the  Master's  sake 
and  humanity's  sake,  she  should  be  willing  to 
learn  from  the  humblest  man  that  digs  by  the 
wayside,  and  I  believe  she  is.  These  strictures 
and  criticisms  of  the  workingmen,  though  far 
too  sweeping  in  many  cases  and  in  some  alto- 
gether groundless,  can  only  do  her  good.  If 
the  church  is  truly  sincere  she  will  be  grateful 
for  having  her  faults  pointed  out. 

The  communications  referred  to  have  con- 
vinced me  that  what  is  needed  on  both  sides  is 
enlargement.  I  have  read  that  one  day  Michael 
Angelo  entered  the  studio  of  his  great  pupil 
Raphael,  and,  seeing  an  unfinished  sketch  upon 
the  easel,  he  wrote  across  it  the  simple  word 
"Amplius" — Larger!  This  was  the  turning 
point  in  Raphael's  life.  He  needed  a  larger 
canvas  and  a  larger  ideal.  His  work  was  too 
narrow,  his  vision  too  cramped,  his  field  too 
small.  The  time  had  come  for  enlargement. 
And  this  is  what  is  needed  in  the  question 
which  we  are  considering.  Workingmen  need 
a  larger  acquaintance  with  the  church.  She  is 
misjudged  and  misconstrued  and  sometimes 
maligned  for  lack  of  knowledge.  Many  of 


Worfcingmen  and  tbe  Cburcb 

them  never  could  have  written  me  as  they  did 
if  they  had  been  at  all  familiar  with  her  inner 
life.  One  writer,  for  example,  found  fault  with 
the  church  "because  not  more  than  five  per  cent 
of  the  sermons  preached  have  to  do  directly 
with  practical  matters."  Another  complained 
that  workingmen  "have  listened  to  sermons 
that  condemn  a  man  for  being  poor  and  praise 
the  rich."  Another  was  grieved  because  "min- 
isters preach  on  the  story  of  Lazarus  and  the 
rich  man,'5  and  leave  the  impression  that  "all 
that  is  necessary  to  get  into  heaven  is  to 
be  poor,  and  most  workingmen  are  poor." 
Where  these  writers  have  lived  and  what 
preachers  they  have  heard  I  do  not  know,  but 
one  thing  is  certain,  that  men  who  can  deliber- 
ately write  after  this  fashion  are  very  much  in 
need  of  information.  That  the  church  has  her 
faults  and  a  great  many  of  them  is  a  fact  which 
I  shall  attempt  neither  to  palliate  nor  deny.  He 
is  no  friend  of  Zion  who  seeks  to  cover  up  her 
sins  and  to  conceal  her  shortcomings.  But 
workingmen  see  the  worst  side  of  her.  They 
see  her  through  her  members  when  they  are  at 
their  lowest,  out  in  the  marts  of  trade  and  in 
the  awful  grind  of  competition.  Their  point 
of  contact  with  the  church  is  almost  entirely  in 

30 


Worfcin0men  anfc  tbc  (Tburcb 

business,  when  her  blood  is  coldest  and  the  tides 
of  her  piety  have  receded  to  low-water  mark. 
They  meet  her  members  and  have  dealings  with 
them  when  engrossed  in  the  grapple  with  the 
world.  No  wonder  their  impressions  are  un- 
favorable. 

I  am  not  excusing  these  members.  No 
doubt  they  ought  to  be  better.  But  it  is  neither 
fair  nor  just  to  draw  inferences  from  what  you 
see  of  people  under  the  most  untoward  circum- 
stances. There  is  a  vast  deal  of  good  in  the 
church,  a  vast  deal  of  unselfishness,  an  im- 
mense amount  of  genuine  love,  which  working- 
men  do  not  see  because  they  do  not  come  in 
contact  with  her  at  the  best  times  and  places. 
Hence,  I  say,  they  need  a  larger  acquaintance 
with  the  church,  a  broader  knowledge  of  her 
spirit,  her  aims  and  her  activities. 

On  the  other  hand  the  church  needs  a  larger 
knowledge  of  workingmen.  She  is  far  too  ig- 
norant of  their  condition  and  the  grievances 
under  which  they  smart.  She  needs  more  in- 
formation as  to  their  hardships  and  sorrows, 
and  until  she  gets  it  her  interest  in  their  wel- 
fare will  be  far  below  what  is  required  by  the 
gospel  of  Christ.  She  needs  larger  aggressive- 
ness. It  is  not  enough  for  her  to  throw  open 


TKHorfcfnamen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

her  doors  and  say,  "Come,"  to  write,  "All  wel- 
come," on  the  bulletin  board,  to  scatter  printed 
invitations  to  attend  her  services,  to  have  at- 
tractive music  and  pleasant  surroundings  and 
courteous  ushers.  These  are  good,  but  they 
fall  far  short  of  measuring  up  to  what  is  re- 
quired. The  great  Saviour  of  men  did  not  say 
from  the  battlements  of  glory :  "The  gates  are 
open,  the  feast  is  ready,  paradise  awaits  you,  a 
cordial  invitation  is  extended,  come  if  you  want 
to."  Nay,  he  went  out,  out  from  the  Father's 
house,  out  through  the  night  and  the  storm, 
out  through  shame  and  sorrow  and  agony,  out 
over  the  wild  mountains  after  the  straying  ones. 

"  None  of  the  ransomed  ever  knew 

How  deep  were  the  waters  crossed; 
Nor  how  dark  was  the  night  that  the  Lord 

passed  through, 

Ere  He  found  His  sheep  that  was  lost. 
Out  in  the  desert  He  heard  its  cry — 
Sick  and  helpless  and  ready  to  die." 

It  was  the  cry  that  brought  him.  His  heart 
was  bursting  with  love.  Its  pressure  was  so 
intense,  its  sympathy  so  consuming,  that  he 
went  out  and  never  stopped  until  he  laid  down 
his  life  for  his  wandering  sheep. 

And  to-day  and  every  day  he  says  to  his 

32 


•QDlorftfnamen  aito  tbe  Cburcb 

church,  "Go  out — out  into  the  highways  and 
hedges,  into  the  streets  and  lanes  of  the  city, 
and  compel  them  to  come  in,  that  my  house 
may  be  filled."  He  wants  it  filled,  and  he  tells 
us  how  to  do  it.  "Go  out" — that  is  the  simple 
programme.  Oh,  if  we  would  only  go  out 
from  the  old  grooves  and  the  familiar  stereo- 
typed order  of  things  and  manifest  a  Christlike 
aggressiveness  a  new  day  would  soon  dawn  for 
Israel.  Out  as  far  as  the  prodigal  has  wan- 
dered, out  with  a  persistency  that  never 
wearies,  out  after  the  lost  sheep  until  we  find  it. 
This  suggests  finally  that  the  church  needs 
a  larger  spirit  of  self-giving,  which  is  the  very 
essence  of  the  Gospel.  Christ  does  not  ask  for 
our  money,  he  does  not  ask  for  our  services, 
he  does  not  ask  us  to  give  alms  or  clothing, 
but  to  give  our  very  selves.  This  is  what  he 
did,  and  it  includes  everything  else.  "What  we 
want,"  said  the  writer  of  one  letter,  "is  that 
Christians  should  come  down  and  love  us." 
What  an  appeal!  The  whole  story,  the  whole 
secret,  is  there.  These  masses  do  not  want  to 
be  patronized,  they  want  to  be  loved.  They 
are  dying  for  sympathy.  They  want  not  yours, 
but  you.  They  want  the  touch  of  a  brotherly 
hand,  and  along  this  road  stands  the  cross. 

3  33 


•Qdorfcfnamen  att&  tbe  Cburcb 

O  men  and  women,  to  this  larger  self-giving 
Christ  is  calling  us  to-day ;  calling  by  the  pres- 
sing and  mighty  needs  of  the  hour,  by  the 
yawning  gap  that  separates  the  masses  from 
his  church  and  by  the  peril  which  this  signifies ; 
calling  us  by  his  own  example,  by  his  pierced 
hands  and  feet,  by  the  sorrows  that  broke  his 
heart,  by  all  the  pleading  eloquence  of  his  cross, 
he  is  calling  us  to  let  go  of  self  and  make  his 
mission  our  mission.  And  by  the  same  token 
he  is  calling  you  who  have  never  named  his 
name.  Heed  the  call,  obey  the  summons,  ac- 
cept his  salvation.  Hear  the  voice  that  breaks 
over  the  tumult  of  time,  sweet  as  the  music  of 
heaven  and  tender  as  the  heart  of  God :  "Come 
unto  me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest." 


34 


III. 

WORKINGMEN  AND  CHRIST. 

T^^  HE  world  owes  an  infinite  debt  to 
I  many  a  man  who  was  reared  in  ob- 
gpjfp|j|  scurity.  Giants  in  moral  and  intel- 
JSgujggJI  lectual  power  have  come  forth  from 
humble  dwellings  of  the  poor.  Those  who 
have  climbed  Time's  ladder  highest  began  on 
the  lowest  round.  Renown  the  most  fadeless 
and  enduring  may  rest  on  a  very  lowly  pedes- 
tal. The  families  from  which  the  leaders  and 
saviours  of  mankind  emerge  do  not  belong 
to  society's  four  hundred.  The  mightiest 
streams  have  their  origin  far  away  amid  the 
quiet  loneliness  of  unfrequented  hills.  How 
many  sons  of  nameless  sires  have  struggled  up 
into  the  sunlight  of  imperishable  glory?  Out 
from  unknown  hiding  places  have  come  men 
who  have  changed  the  courses  of  history.  This 
little  beam  of  hope  I  would  dart  into  the  breast 
of  any  young  workingman  who  may  think  that 
there  is  no  chance  for  him.  Men  who  mount 
up  do  not  waste  time  and  energy  in  bewailing 

35 


TKHorfcinamen  ant>  tbe  Cburcb 

the  hardships  of  their  condition.  They  climb 
in  all  sorts  of  weather.  Every  day  they  put  a 
little  something  beneath  their  feet,  and 

"  Build  the  ladder  by  which  they  rise 
From  the  lowly  earth  to  the  vaulted  skies, 
And  mount  to  the  summit  round  by  round." 

Here,  too,  is  encouragement  for  parents  who 
imagine  that  they  are  too  obscure  and  insig- 
nificant to  be  of  any  special  use  in  the  progress 
of  society.  Civilization  can  never  cancel  its 
obligation  to  the  hands  that  have  rocked  lowly 
cradles;  and  unheard-of  fathers  and  mothers 
hold  a  heavy  account  against  the  world.  Well 
has  it  been  said  that  "No  statesman  can  afford 
to  omit  the  common  people  from  his  calculation. 
They  are  the  very  root  and  core  of  society. 
Kings  are  only  the  blossomings  of  the  national 
tree.  The  roof  is  more  dependent  upon  the 
foundation  than  the  foundation  upon  the  roof. 
Nearly  all,  if  not  quite  all,  the  movements  that 
have  changed  the  thinking  and  determined  the 
new  courses  of  the  world,  have  been  upward, 
not  downward.  The  great  revolutionists  have 
generally  been  cradeled  in  mangers,  and  gone 
through  rough  discipline  in  early  life."  Strictly 
in  keeping  with  these  facts,  the  great  founder 

36 


Worfeingmen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

of  Christianity  was  born  and  reared  in  the 
humblest  conceivable  way.  He  grew  to  man- 
hood in  a  town  so  rude  and  obscure  and  dis- 
reputable that  it  became  a  common  thing  to 
ask:  "Can  there  any  good  thing  come  out  of 
Nazareth?" 

Christ  was  a  workingman.  "Is  not  this  the 
carpenter's  son?"  said  his  fellow-townsmen 
one  day.  They  were  astonished  that  he  whom 
they  had  known  for  many  years  as  an  honest, 
unassuming  toiler  in  the  shop  of  Joseph  should 
have  become  all  at  once  so  mighty  in  word  and 
deed.  "Whence  hath  this  man  this  wisdom  and 
these  mighty  deeds?"  was  the  question  that 
sprang  to  their  wondering  lips.  If  he  had  been 
trained  in  their  celebrated  schools  and  educated 
as  a  rabbi  he  might  perhaps  have  been  ac- 
counted for  somewhat,  but  it  was  beyond  belief 
that  the  carpenter's  son  of  Nazareth  shouldydo 
and  say  such  things.  So  instead  of  admiring 
and  applauding  their  fellow-townsman  they 
were  offended  in  him,  so  much  so  that  Jesus, 
quoting  a  familiar  proverb,  said :  "A  prophet  is 
not  without  honor  save  in  his  own  country  and 
in  his  own  house."  But  the  thing  to  be  especi- 
ally borne  in  mind  now  is  that  Jesus  was  a 
workingman.  It  is  profoundly  significant.  I 
37 


Worfcfnamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

thank  God  that  he  was  not  only  a  carpenter's 
son,  but  a  carpenter  himself.  On  the  lips  of 
the  proud  Roman  and  cultured  Greek  it  was  a 
term  of  reproach.  It  called  forth  many  a  sneer 
to  be  told  that  the  Saviour  of  mankind  toiled  as 
a  poor  artisan  in  a  rude  village  shop.  But  to- 
day the  term  is  one  of  glory.  We  love  to  think 
of  him  at  work  with  plane  and  saw  and  such 
simple  tools  as  his  poverty  could  afford,  his 
hands  often  blistered  and  his  back  often  weary. 
He  learned  the  carpenter's  trade  when  a  boy, 
according  to  the  wise  and  invariable  custom 
of  the  old  Hebrew  people,  and  we  may  be  sure 
he  was  a  conscientious  and  faithful  workman. 
See  what  it  means.  That  he  chose  the  lot  of 
honest  poverty  shows  how  he  sympathized  with 
the  laboring  masses.  He  entered  into  the  con- 
dition of  the  great  majority  of  mankind  and 
became  one  of  them  in  the  fellowship  of  com- 
mon toil.  Thus  by  his  example  he  taught  that 
manhood  is  something  to  estimate  in  itself, 
and  not  because  of  any  adventitious  circum- 
stances of  birth,  or  rank,  or  station,  or  wealth. 
This  thought,  Robert  Burns,  the  plowman  poet 
of  Scotland,  has  thrown  into  verse,  with  which 
we  are  all  familiar: 


Morftinamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

"  What  though  on  homely  fare  we  dine, 

Wear  hoddin  gray  and  a'  that; 
Gie  fools  their  silks,  and  knaves  their  wine, 

A  man's  a  man  for  a"  that: 
For  a*  that,  and  a'  that, 

Their  tinsel  show,  and  a*  that, 
The  honest  man,  though  e'er  so  poor, 

Is  king  o*  men  for  a*  that." 

Again,  in  choosing  the  lot  of  a  workingman, 
Jesus  put  the  stamp  of  divine  dignity  upon 
labor.  He  showed,  as  Canon  Farrar  says,  that 
"it  is  a  pure  and  noble  thing;  it  is  the  salt  of 
life ;  it  is  the  girdle  of  manliness ;  it  saves  the 
body  from  effeminate  languor,  and  the  soul 
from  polluting  thoughts."  I  know  how  far  we 
have  drifted  away  from  the  teachings  of  Jesus 
in  our  social  judgments  and  standards.  It  is 
too  much  the  fashion  to  look  upon  the  white 
and  delicate  hands  of  idleness  and  the  speckless 
attire  of  the  dandy  as  the  marks  of  the  gentle- 
man. A  good  many  parents  seem  to  think  it 
would  be  degrading,  or  at  any  rate  hardly  gen- 
teel, to  have  their  boys  engage  in  some  sort  of 
manual  toil.  They  must  have  something  more 
high-toned  and  refining,  and  the  result  is  that 
the  various  professions  and  clerkships  and 
agencies  are  crowded.  There  is  a  foolish  and 
hurtful  notion  abroad  that  the  lad  who  works 

39 


anD  tbe  Cbutcb 


on  the  farm  or  in  the  shop  is  socially  inferior 
to  the  youth  who  sits  on  a  high  stool  eight  or 
ten  hours  a  day  with  a  pen  over  his  ear.  Per- 
haps church  people  have  done  something  to 
foster  this  feeling.  It  is  wrong.  It  is  alto- 
gether at  variance  with  the  example  of  Jesus 
and  the  teachings  of  the  New  Testament  ;  and 
good  men  and  women  everywhere  should  do 
all  in  their  power  to  bring  about  a  change  of 
public  sentiment  in  this  respect.  There  is 
nothing  more  unworthy,  nothing  more  vulgar, 
than  the  idea  that  a  gentleman  is  one  who  has 
the  means  to  put  himself  beyond  the  necessity 
of  work.  It  is  really  coarse  and  low-minded. 
A  tramp  called  upon  a  kind-hearted  lady  one 
day  and  said  :  "Madam,  won't  you  please  give 
me  a  half  dollar  to  save  me  from  something 
awful?"  Her  sympathies  were  touched  by  the 
pleading  look  of  the  man  and  she  handed  him 
the  money.  "Now,"  she  said,  "won't  you  tell 
me  what  awful  thing  this  will  save  you  from  ?" 
And  he  replied  very  frankly:  "It  will  save  me 
from  doing  an  honest  day's  work."  The  answer 
was  worthy  of  a  tramp. 

I  know  you  will  sometimes  pick  up  a  low- 
class  newspaper  in  which  toil  is  spoken  of  as 
degrading  ;  and  in  city  parks  and  public  places 
40 


Worfefnamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

you  will  frequently  hear  glib-tongued  talkers 
speak  in  a  similar  strain.  But  there  is  no  such 
thing  under  the  sun.  There  are  some  degraded 
men  who  wear  fine  clothes  and  "do  nothing  for 
the  world  but  stare  at  it  and  suck  the  sweetness 
out  of  it."  You  will  find  them  around  clubs 
and  theatres  and  gambling  halls  and  saloons — 
parasites  feeding  upon  what  others  produce, 
ulcers  and  blots  and  excrescences  on  the  face  of 
society.  The  men  who  work,  whether  they  toil 
with  hands  or  head  or  both,  who  do  their  duty 
in  the  sphere  in  which  natural  fitness  has 
placed  them,  and  do  it  earnestly  and  cheerfully 
and  devotedly — these  are  your  gentlemen,  the 
true  nobility  of  earth.  He  who  shrinks  from 
labor,  however  humble,  is  not  fit  to  clasp  the 
horny,  toil-worn  hand  of  the  Carpenter  of 
Nazareth. 

Christ  chose  workingmen  to  be  his  immedi- 
ate companions  and  the  founders  of  his  church. 
James  and  Peter  and  John  were  fishermen,  the 
three  whom  he  took  into  closest  intimacy.  It 
was  they  who  were  admitted  to  the  glories  of 
the  transfiguration  and  the  sorrows  and  agonies 
of  Gethsemane.  He  had  friends  also  among 
the  rich  and  well-to-do.  Zaccheus,  the  publi- 
can, became  his  devoted  follower;  Mary  and 


Worfcinamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

Martha  and  Lazarus  of  Bethany  were  fondly 
attached  to  him,  and  they  did  not  by  any 
means  belong  to  the  poorer  classes.  Their 
dwelling  was  a  home  to  him.  But  to  none  did 
he  seem  to  get  so  near  as  to  the  fishermen.  It 
was  John,  the  fisherman,  who  leaned  on  his 
breast  and  who  spoke  of  himself  as  "that  dis- 
ciple whom  Jesus  loved."  This  man  who  plied 
his  trade  in  the  waters  of  Galilee,  and  whose 
clothing  smelled  of  the  fishing  business,  and 
whose  speech,  like  Peter's  was  no  doubt  pro- 
vincial and  uneducated — this  was  the  man  who 
was  encouraged  to  lay  his  head  on  the  throb- 
bing breast  of  Jesus  Christ.  It  ought  to  en- 
dear the  Lord  Jesus  to  the  hearts  of  working- 
men  forever. 

These  men  of  the  boat  and  the  net  would  not 
have  been  admitted  into  the  so-called  good 
society  of  their  day.  They  did  not  belong  to 
the  elite  and  were  not  acquainted  with  the 
manners  and  conventionalities  of  fashionable 
circles,  but  they  were  nevertheless  honored 
above  all  their  contemporaries  in  that  they 
were  called  to  the  apostleship  by  Jesus  Christ, 
to  lay  the  foundation  of  his  earthly  kingdom. 

Moreover,  Christ  confined  his  labors  mostly 
to  workingmen  and  those  in  the  humbler  grades 

42 


Worfcingmen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

of  life.  He  preached  to  them,  not  in  a  patron- 
izing sort  of  a  way  as  though  it^were  a  con- 
descension to  stoop  to  their  level,  biitfas  one  of 
themselves.  He  drew  his  illustrations  from 
fields  and  flocks  and  fishing  boats,  from  seed- 
growing  and  bread-making,  and  vine-dressing 
and  house-building — things  with  which  work- 
ingmen  were  familiar.  He  thought  and  talked 
a  great  deal  about  common'  things,  and  saw  in- 
finite meanings  in  them.  By  showing  working- 
men  that  he  was  acquainted  with  the  coast  and 
bay  and  all  the  shore  line  of  humble  and  prac- 
tical life  they  were  the  more  ready  to  trust 
him  and  follow  him  when  he  struck  out  upon 
the  vast  ocean  of  truth.  There  is  a  suggestion 
here  for  preachers  to-day.  I  am  very  sure  that, 
if  they  knew  more  about  the  plain  and  prosy 
matters  which  engross  the  attention  and  energy 
of  workingmen  and  used  simple  and  homely 
illustrations  from  the  shop  and  the  mill  and  the 
factory  to  point  the  truth  they  seek  to  enforce, 
they  would  attract  more  of  them  to  their  minis- 
trations. Referring  to  Edward  Irving,  the 
celebrated  London  preacher  some  fifty  years 
ago,  a  skeptical  and  most  incorrigible  tanner 
said  to  a  friend:  "He's  a  great  man,  yon;  he 
kens  about  leather."  Because  the  preacher 

43 


an&  t&e  Cbutcb 


could  talk  to  him  along  the  line  of  his  own 
calling  he  not  only  enlisted  his  attention  but 
won  him  to  the  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ 
Jesus. 

This  was  what  charmed  the  masses  in  the 
preaching  of  our  Lord.  He  never  soared.  He 
never  flung  rockets  into  the  clouds.  He  never 
strained  after  effect.  He  was  never  meta- 
physical. He  was  deep,  unfathomable  some- 
times, but  so  clear  and  so  earnest  that  through 
the  waters  of  his  speech  men  could  always  see 
the  solemn  background  of  eternity.  For  this 
reason  the  common  people  heard  him  gladly. 
They  flocked  to  his  ministry  from  every  part  of 
the  country.  Shepherds  came  down  from  the 
hills  to  hear  him.  Farmers  left  their  fields, 
gardeners  their  fruit  trees,  fishermen  their 
boats  and  nets,  tradesmen  their  shops,  and  pub- 
licans their  custom-houses,  to  listen  to  this 
wonderful  carpenter.  His  figures  of  speech 
were  so  apt,  his  words  so  plain,  so  honest,  and 
so  freighted  with  sympathy,  that  he  entranced 
common  folk  and  sent  them  away  with  longing 
after  a  noble  life.  I  should  like  to  have  heard 
their  comments  when  they  returned  home  from 
one  of  his  matchless  talks.  How  they  must 
have  discussed  him  away  into  the  night  and  en- 

44 


Worfcfngmen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

joyed  his  sharp  thrusts  at  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees,  and  gone  over  his  parables  and 
stories  and  great  sayings  until  mighty  hopes 
began  to  burn  within  them. 

The  shepherd,  I  imagine,  would  say  some- 
thing like  this :  "I  heard  the  Galilean  preacher 
to-day.  He  talked  about  how  the  shepherd 
does  when  one  of  his  sheep  goes  astray  and 
gets  torn  and  wounded  by  the  thorns  and  is 
left  starving  in  the  wilderness.  He  described 
how  he  leaves  his  flock  in  the  fold  and  goes  out 
after  the  lost  one  until  he  finds  it,  and  how 
glad  he  is  when  he  recovers  it,  and  how  he  puts 
the  poor  bleeding  creature  upon  his  shoulder 
and  carries  it  home  rejoicing.  Just  what  I 
have  done  myself.  It  was  all  so  real  and  true 
that  I  thought  I  saw  the  whole  thing  before  my 
eyes.  Then  there  came  a  great  light  into  his 
face  and  he  said  something  about  the  joy  there 
is  in  heaven  over  repenting  sinners.  I  didn't 
quite  get  that,  but  somehow  it  stirred  my  soul 
to  the  depths,  and  I  am  going  to  hear  him 
again."  So  every  workingman  that  came  to 
hear  him  got  some  sweet  and  inspiring  lesson 
couched  in  terms  of  his  own  special  calling. 

But  while  Christ  found  his  companions  and 
his  work  mostly  among  the  toiling  masses,  he 

45 


Worfcingmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

had  no  railing,  bitter  words  to  say  against  the 
rich,  simply  for  being  rich.  He  did  say,  "How 
hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches  enter  into 
the  kingdom  of  heaven."  He  did  warn  men 
against  covetousness  and  selfish  hoarding.  He 
did  speak  of  the  deceitfulness  of  riches,  how 
they  choke  out  the  good  seed  that  is  sown  in 
the  heart.  But  he  indulged  in  no  tirade  against 
wealth.  He  did  not  inveigh  against  those  who 
had  large  possessions.  What  interested  him 
and  enlisted  all  his  powers  and  engaged  all  his 
sympathies  was  man.  He  had  followers  among 
the  rich,  he  had  more  among  the  poor,  but  he 
loved  them  and  called  them  into  his  kingdom, 
not  because  they  were  either  rich  or  poor,  but 
because  they  were  men. 

I  refer  to  this  for  the  reason  that  in  some  of 
the  letters  which  I  have  received  from  working- 
men  it  was  implied  that  Jesus  condemned 
wealth  and  taught  that  it  is  incompatible  with 
a  place  in  his  kingdom.  But  let  me  hasten  to 
remind  you  that  Jesus  worked  down  on  the 
lower  ranges  of  society  rather  than  toward  the 
top.  He  went  where  there  was  the  greatest 
need,  down  among  the  wretched  and  helpless 
and  despairing.  Hence  it  was  that  he  shocked 
the  refined  and  high-toned  circles  of  the  day. 

46 


Udorfcingmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

He  distinctly  announced  that  he  came  not  to 
call  the  clean  and  the  clever  and  the  respectable 
and  the  decent,  "but  sinners  to  repentance." 
It  was  the  black  sheep  in  humanity's  flock  he 
was  after.  It  was  the  castaways  that  excited 
his  compassion.  He  picked  for  the  worst  cases. 
The  deeper  a  man  was  down  the  more  interest 
Christ  took  in  him.  He  saw  what  was  under 
the  ruins.  He  saw  the  magnificent  possibilities 
hidden  away  in  the  most  shattered  and  de- 
graded life.  And  so  we  find  him  eating  with 
publicans  and  sinners,  sitting  down  at  the  social 
meal  and  holding  friendly  intercourse  with 
them.  People  who  were  rejected  and  thrust 
out  and  denied  recognition  by  their  fellow-men, 
became  his  servants  and  his  friends.  Even 
harlots  and  prodigals,  who  had  wasted  their 
substance  in  riotous  living  and  debauchery, 
blasted  and  withered  by  the  hot  fire  of  unholy 
passion,  were  drawn  to  him,  and  by  his  words 
and  looks  and  sympathy  and  love  he  planted 
hope  once  more  in  their  blackened  hearts. 

He  saw  the  woman  in  the  harlot,  the  son  in 
the  prodigal,  the  jewel  imbedded  in  the  filth, 
so  precious,  so  beautiful,  so  divine  that  he  ven- 
tured to  brave  all  sneers  and  all  gossip  and  all 
opposition  to  save  it.  Let  me  give  you  an  in- 

47 


Worfcinsmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

stance.  It  is  loaded  with  love,  and  crowded 
with  heaven.  It  is  the  story  of  the  woman 
taken  in  adultery,  a  poor,  besmirched,  be- 
draggled woman  of  the  town.  The  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  brought  her  into  the  presence  of 
Jesus  and  quoted  the  law  of  Moses  bearing 
upon  the  case,  which  was  that  she  should  be 
stoned,  but  "what  sayest  thou?"  they  asked. 
He  remained  silent  for  a  moment  writing  some- 
thing on  the  ground.  Then  presently  he 
straightened  himself  up  and  said — and  I  think 
there  must  have  been  the  flash  of  God's  own 
lightning  in  his  eyes  when  he  said  it :  "He  that 
is  without  sin  among  you  let  him  first  cast  a 
stone  at  her."  Not  a  stone  was  cast.  They 
stole  out  like  guilty  dogs.  Then  said  Jesus  to 
the  adulteress:  "Where  are  thine  accusers? 
Hath  no  man  condemned  thee?"  "No  man, 
Lord."  And  Jesus  said  unto  her :  "Neither  do 
I  condemn  thee ;  go,  and  sin  no  more." 

Oh,  fellow-men,  it  is  this  voice  that  affects 
me  and  takes  hold  upon  me.  See  how  it  goes 
away  down  into  the  regions  where  no  hope  is 
shining  and  says  to  the  poor  harlot  and  the 
friendless  castaway:  "Look  up.  There  is  a 
chance  for  you.  There  is  salvation  for  you." 
The  man  who  is  black  with  the  stains  of  in- 
48 


•Qdorfcinamen  an&  tbe  Gburcb 

iquity,  the  man  who  camps  on  the  edge  of  hell, 
the  man  who  slimes  his  way  with  the  worm — 
even  he  may  come  to  this  carpenter's  son  and 
be  saved. 

Now  there  are  just  two  things  which  I  wish 
to  emphasize  before  leaving  the  matter  with 
you.  The  first  is  the  message  which  comes 
from  all  this  to  the  church  and  to  Christian 
people.  If  Jesus  Christ  worked  along  the 
lower  ranges  of  society,  if  he  put  forth  his  most 
earnest  and  continued  efforts  among  the  lowly 
and  fallen  and  suffering  and  oppressed  masses 
of  humanity,  where  ought  we  to  work  most 
earnestly?  Can  we  be  following  in  his  foot- 
steps if  we  neglect  or  refuse  to  go  where  he 
went?  The  needs  are  certainly  as  great  and 
imperative  among  the  masses  to-day  as  when 
Jesus  "ate  with  publicans  and  sinners."  It  is 
not  easy,  it  is  not  pleasant.  It  means  sacrifice. 
It  means  the  cross.  But  if  the  toiling  millions 
who  work  in  our  shops  and  factories  and  on 
our  railways ;  if  the  women  who  are  driven  to 
vice  by  cruel  and  merciless  employers;  if  the 
strangers  who  float  about  our  cities  unanchored 
by  any  ties  of  domestic  life ;  if  the  children  on 
back  streets,  ragged  and  pale  and  pinched  with 
hunger  and  want;  if  the  countless  victims  of 

4  49 


Worfctnamen  ant>  tfoe  (Tburcb 

the  rum  curse  which  Christian  votes  have 
clothed  with  a  sort  of  semi-respectability;  if 
the  low-down  and  poverty-stricken  of  all  sorts 
— if  these  are  not  the  lost  sheep  that  Jesus 
wants  Christians  to  seek  and  save,  what  are 
they?  Unless  they  are  wilfully  blind  to  the 
teaching  and  example  of  Christ  they  must  see 
that  duty,  nay,  that  love,  bids  them  do  their 
utmost  among  the  neglected  masses.  The  one 
passion  that  burned  in  his  breast  until  it  con- 
sumed him  was  his  passion  for  humanity,  and  it 
is  the  only  passion  worthy  of  those  who  bear 
his  name. 

The  second  thing  I  wish  to  emphasize  is  the 
message  that  comes  from  all  this  to  work- 
ingmen.  Jesus  was  a  carpenter  and  lived  for 
thirty  years  in  a  carpenter's  home.  He  in- 
augurated his  kingdom  by  calling  fishermen  to 
his  aid.  He  gave  undying  dignity  to  labor  and 
ennobled  forever  the  sweat  of  honest  toil.  If 
there  is  any  one  class  of  persons  under  the  sun 
who  should  love  Christ  and  rally  about  his 
banner  and  delight  to  serve  him  more  than 
another  it  is  workingmen.  He  voluntarily 
assumed  their  condition  and  tasted  their  ex- 
periences and  lived  their  life,  and  no  voice 
should  be  more  ready  to  speak  his  praises,  no 

50 


TWlorfcingmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

hands  more  ready  to  do  his  will,  no  feet  more 
ready  to  run  upon  his  errands  than  theirs. 
Every  condition  of  society,  every  station  in 
life  was  open  to  his  choice.  He  might  have 
come  as  a  scholar  or  as  a  philosopher  and  daz- 
zled the  world  with  the  splendor  of  his  attain- 
ments. He  might  have  appeared  as  a  prince 
with  a  bannered  army  in  his  train.  He  might 
have  come  with  a  crown  on  his  head  and  untold 
wealth  at  his  command,  but  he  did  not.  He 
came  into  a  workingman's  home  and  a  work- 
ingman's  life.  He  did  it  too,  let  it  be  remem- 
bered, at  a  time  when  the  masses  of  the  people 
were  prostrate  in  the  dust.  Philosophy  looked 
upon  them  with  disdain.  Justice  tipped  her 
balances  against  them.  Law  had  no  arm  of 
protection  to  throw  around  them.  Society 
brushed  by  them  with  curling  lips  of  scorn. 
Kindness,  if  it  deigned  to  look  upon  them  at 
all,  looked  timidly  askance.  Even  religion 
passed  by  on  the  other  side.  In  every  direction 
"the  multitudes  who  thronged  the  highways 
and  thoroughfares  of  life"  were  not  only  neg- 
lected, but  treated  as  the  refuse  and  scum  of 
the  earth.  To  Jesus  belongs  the  distinguishing 
glory  of  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  poor.  This 
strange,  this  other-worldly  fact,  he  adduced  as 

Si 


Worfcinamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

a  proof  of  his  Messianic  character.  He  came 
to  rescue  them  from  their  low  estate,  to  give 
them  dignity  in  the  eyes  of  the  world,  to  plead 
their  cause,  to  wipe  away  their  tears,  and  to 
make  them  children  of  the  kingdom  which  he 
charged  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  with  shut- 
ting against  them  and  leaving  them  to  perish. 
Hence,  I  say,  workingmen  should  love  him 
above  all  others.  They  should  crowd  his  courts 
and  make  them  ring  with  hallelujahs  to  the  Son 
of  God.  They  should  be  the  foremost  soldiers 
in  his  army.  They  should  sit  down  at  his  table 
and  "do  this  in  remembrance  of  him."  They 
should  hear  and  obey  the  voice  of  this  divine 
carpenter  when  he  says,  "Follow  me."  "Con- 
fess me  before  men."  If  the  church  is  cor- 
rupt, if  it  is  apostate,  let  them  come  in  and 
rescue  it  for  Jesus'  sake  and  show  us  how  to 
live.  No  matter  about  doctrines,  no  matter 
about  problems  in  theology,  no  matter  about 
doubts  on  certain  points.  Get  right  with  him 
and  all  such  matters  will  take  care  of  them- 
selves. Above  all  these,  as  far  as  the  sun  is 
above  the  fog  of  the  valley,  is  the  Carpenter ; 
and  as  they  think  of  his  compassion,  of  his 
sympathy  with  them,  of  his  fellowship  with 
them  in  the  toil  and  sweat  of  the  shop,  of  the 

52 


TKttorftfngmcn  a^  tbe  Cbutcb 

cross  on  which  he  died  for  them,  they  should 
say,  in  the  spirit  and  temper  of  the  poet : 

"  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  man, 
And  only  a  man,  I  say, 
That  of  all  mankind  I  will  cleave  to  Him, . 
And  to  Him  will  cleave  alway. 

"  If  Jesus  Christ  is  a  God,    y 

And  the  only  God,  I  swear 
I  will  follow  Him  through  heaven  and  hell, 
The  earth,  the  sea  and  the  air." 


SANTA     BARBARA.    CALIF 


IV. 

WORKINGMEN  AND  HUMAN  BROTH- 
ERHOOD. 

T""^HE  idea  of  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
I  like  all  great  constructive  ideas,  has 

had  a  hard  struggle  for  recognition. 

Its  earliest  manifestation,  I  suppose, 
was  in  the  family,  and  yet  in  the  first  family  of 
which  we  have  any  knowledge  Cain  slew  his 
brother  Abel.  From  the  family  it  broadened 
away  until  it  took  in  the  clan,  or  tribe,  and  from 
the  tribe,  until  it  took  in  the  nation.  When 
Moses  said,  "Sirs,  ye  are  brethren,"  his 
thoughts  included  only  the  descendants  of 
Abraham.  It  never  occurred  to  him  when  he 
slew  the  Egyptian  that  he  also  was  brother  to 
the  Hebrew.  But  Moses  lived  in  the  morning 
of  the  world.  To-day  the  idea  of  brotherhood, 
in  theory  and  sentiment  at  least,  reaches  be- 
yond the  tribe,  beyond  the  province,  beyond  the 
nation,  and  embraces  the  whole  family  of  man. 
As  a  doctrine  it  is  slowly  but  surely  finding 
its  way  into  the  thoughts  and  lives  of  men. 

54 


TClorfcinomen  an&  tbe  Gburcb 

We  see  evidence  of  this  in  the  rapid  multipli- 
cation' of  fraternal  orders,  Masons,  Odd  Fel- 
lows, Knights  of  Pythias,  Knights  of  Labor, 
and  chapters  and  lodges  without  end.  These 
organizations  indicate  a  drift.  They  show  that 
the  spirit  of  fraternity  is  coming  into  men  more 
and  more  and  crystalizing.  They  indicate  that 
men  are  groping  along  toward  the  realization 
of  the  second  great  law  of  the  kingdom,  viz. : 
"Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself."  It 
is  being  felt  that  down  beneath  all  differences 
of  creed  and  color  and  nationality  there  is  a 
common  humanity,  a  common  consciousness  of 
sin,  and  common  longings  and  aspirations  after 
something  better.  We  see  this  drift,  moreover, 
in  great  expositions  and  fairs  where  the  pro- 
ducts of  human  skill  from  every  land  and  clime 
are  put  on  exhibition  side  by  side.  For  this 
reason  alone  such  enterprises  are  worthy  of 
encouragement.  They  indicate  a  drawing  to- 
gether of  the  human  family,  a  spirit  that  is 
working  beneath,  a  spirt  of  fraternity  that  is 
gradually  bringing  men  into  more  helpful  re- 
lations. 

A  word  or  two  as  to  the  origin  of  this  idea. 
Here  we  may  not  be  agreed,  but  I  have  no 
doubt  it  comes  to  us  largely  from  the  growing 

55 


Morfcfnamen  an&  tbe  Cbutcb 

belief  in  the  Fatherhood  of  God.  We  get  light 
from  the  sun  and  heat  from  the  sun;  we  get 
our  time  from  the  stars  and  our  rain  from  the 
clouds.  "Every  good  and  perfect  gift  cometh 
down  from  above."  This  idea  of  the  brother- 
hood of  man  is  no  exception.  We  find  it  in  the 
Bible.  We  find  it  in  the  teachings  of  Jesus. 
We  find  it  in  the  epistles  of  Paul  and  Peter  and 
James  and  John.  They  got  it  from  Christ,  and 
Christ  brought  it  with  him  from  the  bosom  of 
the  Father.  The  diffusion  of  Christianity  and 
the  dissemination  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  have 
caused  it  to  take  root  in  every  land.  It  has 
found  its  way  into  literature,  into  art,  into  song, 
into  civilization.  Men  are  taking  it  in  uncon- 
sciously because  of  their  contact  with  Christian 
institutions  and  Christian  forces.  Multitudes 
who  do  not  accept  Christianity  are  nevertheless 
toned  up  by  it.  Their  lives  strike  a  higher 
moral  key  than  they  would  if  they  lived  where 
its  music  did  not  fall  upon  them.  Men  are  in- 
debted to  the  Christian  religion  for  a  good 
many  ennobling  beliefs,  for  which  it  never  oc- 
curs to  them  to  give  it  credit.  From  this  source 
comes  their  belief  in  the  brotherhood  of  man, 
and  this  springs  from  the  great  fundamental 
doctrine  of  the  Fatherhood  of  God. 

56 


TKttorfcinsmen  anfc  tbe  Cbutcb 

According  to  this  doctrine  all  mankind  are 
one  family,  whether  they  belong  to  China  or 
California,  to  Africa  or  Sweden.  It  teaches  us 
that  every  man,  however  low,  or  vile,  or  de- 
graded, is  our  brother.  No  matter  who  he 
may  be  or  where  he  may  come  from,  whether  a 
pauper  at  the  gate,  or  a  thief  in  the  prison,  or 
a  tramp  on  the  highway,  or  a  tradesman  at  the 
bench,  or  a  ruler  of  a  kingdom,  he  is  our 
brother.  This  is  the  theory.  This  is  what  we 
sing  about  and  lecture  about  with  much  display 
of  rhetorical  fireworks.  But  it  is  more  than  a 
theory ;  it  is  a  mighty  truth  that  has  come  forth 
from  the  heart  of  God  and  will  yet  reign  among 
all  the  sons  of  men. 

But  in  the  second  place,  it  is  in  the  highest 
degree  important  that  men  should  have  right 
ideas  as  to  what  brotherhood  means.  What 
does  it  involve  ?  We  must  be  careful  not  to  go 
to  extremes.  Things  must  be  held  in  their 
right  balance. 

Negatively,  then,  let  me  say  that  brotherhood 
does  not.  mean  equality.  There  is  no  such  thing 
in  God's  universe,  so  far  as  we  know.  There 
is  an  inherent  inequality  in  things.  There  is 
an  inborn  inequality  in  men.  They  are 
launched  into  being  with  varying  capacities  and 

57 


Morfeingmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

possibilities.  Every  man  for  example,  has  a 
capacity  for  happiness,  a  capacity  for  knowl- 
edge, but  you  cannot  put  as  much  in  a  pint 
measure  as  you  can  in  a  gallon.  Both  may  be 
full.  They  may  have  all  they  can  hold,  but  they 
are  not  equal.  It  is  simply  impossible  to  put  a 
large  thinker  on  an  equality  with  a  small 
thinker.  The  big  brain  must  stand  in  the  front 
in  this  and  in  every  other  world.  The  ablest 
workman  must  take  precedence.  The  man 
with  the  best  head  will  be  the  head  man.  The 
man  who  can  becomes  king.  There  will  always 
be  captains  and  privates,  superiors  and  sub- 
ordinates, leaders  and  followers.  There  are 
gradations  in  heaven.  "One  star  differeth  from 
another  star  in  glory." 

God  has  made  it  so  and  we  cannot  change  his 
decree.  Inequality,  however,  is  in  every  way 
consistent  with  the  most  perfect  brotherliness. 
In  volume  of  being  and  manhood,  in  spiritual 
and  intellectual  power,  Jesus  stood  immeasur- 
ably above  his  fishermen  disciples,  and  yet  he 
was  one  of  them  in  fraternal  love  and  helpful- 
ness. You  know  how  all  the  strength  of  the 
household  bows  down  to  the  aged,  worn-out 
father  and  mother,  or  to  the  little  babe  in  the 
cradle.  The  greatest  of  all  is  servant  of  all.  So 

58 


Worfcinamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

Jesus  Christ,  the  Prince  of  the  Highest,  became 
our  Elder  Brother,  the  Great  Servant  of  the 
erring,  sinning  sons  of  men.  But  while  brother- 
hood does  not  mean  equality,  it  does  mean  sym- 
pathy— a  great  word  to  which  we  are  in  the 
habit  of  giving  a  very  narrow  significance.  A 
friendly  wish  is  not  sympathy.  A  vague  inter- 
est in  another's  welfare  is  not  sympathy.  To 
exhaust  one's  effort  for  the  distressed  in  fram- 
ing resolutions  and  in  beautiful  talk  is  not  sym- 
pathy. To  see  some  poor  fellow  on  the  Jericho 
road,  robbed  and  beaten  and  half  dead,  and  to 
say,  "I  am  really  sorry  for  him,  I  pity  him," 
and  then  hurry  on  to  Jerusalem,  is  not  sym- 
pathy. To  pray  for  the  needy  and  unemployed, 
and  then  never  think  of  them  again  after  the 
"Amen"  is  said,  is  not  sympathy.  A  good 
many  actions  which  we  perform  and  which  we 
feel  very  proud  of,  can  be  called  sympathetic 
only  by  courtesy. 

Sympathy  means  to  share  with,  to  suffer 
with,  to  make  the  pain  of  my  neighbor's  life 
the  anguish  of  my  own,  to  weep  with  those 
who  weep,  and  rejoice  with  those  who  rejoice. 
It  means  to  drink  the  same  cup  and  walk  the 
same  road  and  climb  the  same  hill.  It  means 
to  put  ourselves  in  the  same  place  with  our 

59 


WorfcittQtnen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

burdened  and  weary  and  heart-broken  brother 
man,  and  feel  what  he  feels.  This  is  what 
Jesus  did.  He  took  our  sorrows.  He  carried 
our  burdens.  He  felt  the  sting  of  our  griefs 
and  disappointments.  He  was  touched  with  a 
feeling  of  our  infirmities.  How  often  is  it  said 
of  him,  "He  had  compassion."  This  is  the  one 
word  that  gathers  into  itself  his  entire  history. 
Go  into  a  piano-house,  strike  a  certain  key, 
and  every  string  of  the  same  pitch  of  every 
instrument  will  catch  it  up  and  repeat  it.  That 
is  sympathy;  that  is  brotherhood.  It  means 
that  if  one  portion  of  the  family  of  man  suf- 
fers, the  whole  family  suffers.  It  means  that 
if  a  wrong  is  done  to  the  workingman,  or  if 
workingmen  wrong  one  another,  an  injury  is 
inflicted  on  the  whole  social  body.  Brotherhood 
means  a  common  sympathy  between  all  the 
parts  of  society,  and  that  each  shall  interest  it- 
self in  the  welfare  of  the  other.  And  brother- 
hood means  that  I  shall  have  an  interest  not 
only  in  the  mass,  but  especially  in  the  man.  It  is 
personal  and  individual.  I  must  help  him. 
I  must  give  him  a  hand  if  he  is  down.  If  he 
has  fallen  into  sin  I  must  not  only  rescue  him, 
if  I  can,  but  do  all  in  my  power  to  remove  the 
cause  of  his  downfall.  Brotherhood  makes 
60 


Morfcinamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

it  imperative  for  me  to  strike  at  the  saloon,  at 
gambling,  at  pernicious  literature,  and  at  every- 
thing that  tends  to  injure  or  destroy  my  fellow- 
man.  It  means  social  recognition,  friendly 
helpfulness,  the  destruction  of  all  exclusive- 
ness.  Anyone  whose  delicacy  is  so  refined  and 
kid-gloved  as  to  fear  pollution  by  coming  into 
sympathetic  touch  with  ordinary  humanity; 
anyone  who  cannot  stand  on  the  same  level  and 
hold  friendly  intercourse  with  horny-handed 
toil ;  any  woman  who  dare  not  speak  to  her 
fallen  sister  who  has  sinned  against  society; 
anyone  who  cannot  give  a  real,  genuine,  whole- 
hearted welcome  to  the  home-coming  prodigal ; 
— anyone  of  this  temper  and  spirit  commits 
sacrilege  when  he  undertakes  to  pray  the 
Lord's  prayer.  So  long  as  the  expression, 
"Our  Father,"  stands  at  the  threshold  of  that 
prayer  no  one  can  use  it  honestly  without 
recognizing  the  brotherhood  of  man,  and  if  he 
recognizes  the  brotherhood  of  man  he  must 
recognize  the  lowest  as  well  as  the  highest,  the 
poorest  as  well  as  the  richest.  We  must  be 
brotherly  or  we  cannot  use  this  prayer  of  Jesus 
or  any  other  if  we  care  to  have  it  get  beyond 
the  reach  of  our  own  ears. 

But  we  must  go  farther.    The  idea  of  broth- 
61 


TPQlorfcfngmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

erhood  is  one  that  applies  to  nations  as  well  as 
individuals.  The  commonwealth  has  no  more 
right  before  God  to  be  selfish  than  the  citizen 
has.  Nations  are  just  as  much  bound  to  study 
and  promote  one  another's  interest  as  indi- 
viduals are,  and  they  will  by  and  by,  but  not 
to-morrow.  This,  then,  is  what  I  may  call 
brotherhood  in  theory.  It  is  beautiful,  it  is 
heavenly,  it  is  just  what  we  should  see  among 
men  if  they  were  everywhere  actuated  by  the 
spirit  of  the  gospel. 

Now,  however,  let  us  descend  from  the 
region  of  theory  to  the  region  of  practice  and 
look  at  things  as  they  are.  Begin,  if  you 
please,  with  the  relations  of  employers  and  em- 
ployed. I  am  glad  to  know  that  there  are 
bright  spots  here  and  there  where  co-operation 
has  been  inaugurated  and  mill-owners  and  fac- 
tory-owners make  the  interests  of  their  work- 
ing-men and  working  women  identical  with 
their  own.  They  are  treated  not  as  hands  but  as 
men  and  women,  and  are  made  sharers  in  the 
profits  of  their  labor.  It  is  brotherly.  It  is  a 
hint  of  what  one  day  will  be  universal. 

But  for  the  most  part,  as  things  are  at  pres- 
ent, the  relations  betwen  capital  and  labor  sug- 
gest anything  but  brotherhood.  It  is  stated 
62 


Morfcfngmen  ant>  tbe  Gburcb 

that  there  are  in  America  to-day  3,145,000 
employes  at  work  every  Sunday,  one  out  of 
every  ten  of  our  wage-earners,  a  representa- 
tive from  every  sixth  family  in  the  land.  Some 
of  the  work  done  by  them  is  no  doubt  neces- 
sary, but  everybody  knows  that  two-thirds  of 
it  might  be  dispensed  with.  Greed,  avarice, 
the  determination  to  have  money  at  any  cost, 
keep  the  workers  on  the  weary  treadmill  of 
service  seven  days  out  of  the  week.  Thus  they 
are  deprived  of  their  necessary  rest,  deprived 
of  the  elevating  influences  of  Sabbath  worship 
and  of  the  opportunity  of  thinking  along  higher 
lines  than  those  of  week-day  toil.  In  thou- 
sands of  instances  their  noses  are  kept  on  the 
grindstone  to  increase  the  wealth  of  fine  people 
who  go  to  church.  It  is  painful  to  have  to 
make  such  a  statement,  but  it  is  the  simple 
truth.  Is  such  cold-heartedness  brotherly? 
When  we  read  Jacob  Riis'  description  of  tene- 
ment life  in  New  York  city,  how  parents  and 
children,  old  and  young,  sometimes  to  the  num- 
ber of  thirty  or  forty,  are  crowded  into  a  single 
room,  utterly  without  ventilation,  living  to- 
gether promiscuously  like  beasts,  ragged  and 
filthy  and  starving ;  when  we  read  of  the  hor- 
rors and  depravities  and  streams  of  crime  and 

63 


TKHorfcin0men  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

disease  that  flow  from  these  awful  fountains 
of  vice,  and  are  told  that  many  of  these  places 
are  owned  by  men  who  bear  the  name  of  Jesus 
of  Nazareth;  when  we  read  that  during  the 
winter  months  of  a  recent  year,  21,000  men, 
women,  and  children  in  the  city  of  New  York 
were  turned  out  into  the  cold  because  they 
could  not  pay  their  rent ;  when  we  read  that  in 
the  same  metropolis  sometime  ago  a  great  ball 
was  given  at  Delmonico's  costing  $50,000, 
while  out  on  the  curbstone  there  shivered  a 
poor  woman  with  a  dead  babe  in  her  arms; 
when  we  read  of  the  thousands  who  are  com- 
pelled to  live  on  starvation  wages  and  are 
driven  to  vice  and  crime  to  keep  them  from 
absolute  want;  when  we  read  that  appalling 
story  of  General  Booth,  "In  Darkest  England," 
in  which  he  shows  that  in  multitudes  of  cases  in 
the  great  city  of  London  it  is  better  to  be  a  cab 
horse  than  a  man ; — when  we  read  about  these 
things  and  then  recall  the  fact  that  they  are 
taking  place  not  only  in  Christian  lands,  but 
under  the  very  shadow  of  our  churches,  we 
can  see  what  a  long,  long  distance  there  is  yet 
between  brotherhood  in  theory  and  brotherhood 
in  practice.  Take  it  among  workingmen  them- 
selves, many  of  whom  complain  so  bitterly  of 

64 


Morfcfngmen  an&  t&e  Cburcb 

the  church,  and  how  much  of  fraternity  do  you 
see  there?  I  have  seen  the  walking  delegate 
on  his  beat  watching  to  see  if  any  man  was 
working  in  opposition  to  the  will  of  his  union, 
or  for  less  wages  than  it  demanded.  No  matter 
though  his  wife  was  sick  and  his  children  cry- 
ing for  bread,  no  matter  though  his  rent  was 
coming  due  and  must  be  paid  under  penalty  of 
eviction,  no  matter  though  the  strongest  and 
tenderest  and  holiest  ties  of  life  called  upon  him 
to  go  to  the  shop  and  earn  a  little  something  to 
keep  want  from  the  door  and  his  dear  ones 
from  the  potter's  field,  he  was  compelled,  forci- 
bly and  violently,  to  quit  and  leave  his  family 
to  starve  and  die.  Was  it  brotherly  ?  And  yet 
something  of  that  kind  you  may  see  in  con- 
nection with  almost  every  strike  or  lockout 
amongst  workingmen.  Is  it  brotherly  love  to 
fix  a  scale  of  wages  and  then  fling  epithets  at 
a  man  and  denounce  him  as  a  "scab,"  or  per- 
haps lay  cruel  hands  upon  him,  if,  under  the 
pinch  of  dire  necessity,  he  ventures  to  work 
for  less? 

Look  at  the  bearing  of  this  matter  in  another 
direction.  We  all  believe  in  brotherhood, 
every  man  of  us.  It  sounds  well.  Our  con- 
science says  it  is  right.  In  our  innermost  souls 

«  65 


Worfctnsmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

we  are  sure  it  is  in  accord  with  the  will  of  God. 
But  now  listen  to  me  kindly ;  what  do  you  think 
of  the  Chinese  Exclusion  Act?  Put  aside  prej- 
udice, put  aside  all  race  antipathy,  put  aside  all 
selfish  considerations,  lift  the  question  up  into 
the  pure,  broad,  atmosphere  of  human  brother- 
hood, take  it  up  into  the  region  where  Christ 
lives  and  rules,  where  his  spirit  is  regnant,  and 
then  make  answer  to  your  conscience  before 
Almighty  God — what  do  you  think  of  Chinese 
Exclusion?  How  does  it  fit  this  great  and 
divine  principle  which  we  are  talking  about? 
While  you  are  thinking  over  that,  let  me  ask 
my  brethren  in  the  gospel  to  reflect  upon  it  in 
another  direction. 

Brotherhood  means  co-operation;  it  means 
mutual  helpfulness.  Now,  in  the  light  of  this 
principle  look  at  the  various  religious  denomi- 
nations. Is  it  not  very  largely  true  that  "if 
they  should  make  their  creeds  correspond  with 
their  deeds  they  would  profess  their  faith,  not 
in  the  communion  of  saints,  but  in  the  compe- 
tition of  saints  ?"  To  co-operate  in  the  mill  and 
in  the  factory  may  be  all  well  enough ;  it  may  be 
just  the  thing,  a  most  beautiful  illustration  of 
the  principle  of  brotherhood ;  but  many  of  our 
ecclesiastical  leaders  are  slow  to  accept  the  idea 

66 


•Qdorftingmen  an&  tbe  Cbnrcb 

in  its  application  to  churches ;  they  tell  us  it  is 
visionary  and  impracticable,  and  so  our  little 
sectarian  rivalries  and  jealousies  and  money- 
wasting  schemes  go  on.  If  the  Christian  de- 
nominations are  so  slow,  so  reluctant  to  apply 
the  great  law  of  brotherhood  in  prosecuting 
the  Master's  work,  need  we  wonder  that  it  gets 
such  scant  recognition  in  the  industrial  world  ? 
Oh,  when  will  we  learn  that  the  way  of  rivalry 
is  the  way  to  failure  and  defeat,  and  that  the 
way  of  co-operation  is  the  way  to  victory? 

To  look  once  more  at  this  matter  of  brother- 
hood in  practice,  let  me  say  that  nothing  so 
much  surprises  me  as  to  hear  people,  even 
Christian  people,  go  into  the  economics  of  for- 
eign missions.  They  tell  us  that  it  costs  so 
much  to  convert  the  heathen,  and  if  the  money 
were  kept  at  home  great  things  might  be  done 
with  it.  I  remember  a  man  who  talked  in  this 
strain  1900  years  ago.  When  a  certain  woman, 
whose  heart  was  bursting  with  gratitude  and 
love,  brought  an  alabaster  box  and  broke  it 
and  poured  the  ointment  on  the  Saviour's  head, 
until  the  house  was  filled  with  the  sweet  fra- 
grance, there  was  a  critic  looking  on  who  said, 
"To  what  purpose  is  this  waste  ?  The  ointment 
might  have  been  sold  for  three  hundred  pence 

67 


Worfcin0men  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

and  given  to  the  poor."  An  overflowing  love 
was  nothing  to  him.  This  beautiful  expression 
of  the  heart's  gratitude  had  no  charm  for  Judas 
Iscariot.  When  men  and  women  stand  and  say 
in  effect,  "You  have  love,  you  have  sympathy, 
you  have  helpfulness,  you  have  a  blessed 
gospel,  but  do  not  break  the  alabaster  box ;  save 
it,  keep  it  at  home,  it  will  cost  too  much  to 
send  it  abroad" — they  are  imitating  a  most  un- 
holy example.  I  hold  that  no  sublimer  notion 
ever  entered  into  the  hearts  of  men  than  that 
of  foreign  missions.  Its  fundamental,  its  con- 
structive, its  inspiring  idea  is  that  all  men  are 
brethren,  and  that  its  field  is  the  world.  Let 
us  get  away  from  the  spirit  of  Judas  to  that  of 
Jesus. 

Such,  then,  in  a  few  of  its  phases,  is  how  the 
matter  stands  to-day.  The  principle  of  human 
brotherhood  is  still  very  far  from  being  applied. 
We  like  it  as  a  doctrine.  We  talk  and  write 
and  sing  about  it,  but  to  take  it  down  to  the 
plane  of  practical  life  and  "perform  the  doing 
of  it,"  is  quite  another  thing.  It  cuts  too  close. 
It  topples  over  too  many  of  our  idols.  It  strikes 
too  hard  at  our  natural  selfishness.  It  is  all  right 
enough  to  call  the  beggar  across  the  street,  or 
the  heathen  across  the  sea  my  brother;  it 
68 


Morfeingmen  anfc  tbe  (Tburcb 

sounds  well  in  public  speech  and  reads  well  on 
the  printed  page;  but  to  actually  treat  him  as 
my  brother — ah!  there's  the  rub.  We  are  all 
very  good  in  our  theories,  but  most  of  us  break 
down  at  the  point  of  application.  Theory  is 
fleet-footed  and  soon  reaches  the  goal,  and  if 
we  kept  up  with  it  most  of  us  would  have  been 
ready  for  heaven  long  ago.  But  practice  is  like 
a  pack  mule  on  a  steep  and  rough  mountain 
road.  It  is  slow  and  stubborn,  and  will  not  bear 
too  much  urging.  It  must  have  time  and  plenty 
oi  encouragement,  and  it  will  get  there  after  a 
while. 

But  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  there  is 
such  a  vast  distance  between  the  theory  and 
practice  of  brotherhood,  the  outlook  is  full  of 
hope.  There  are  shadows  enough,  God  knows, 
but  still  the  light  is  breaking  and  spreading.  If 
human  life  is  still  cheap,  it  is  worth  immensely 
more  than  it  was  two  or  three  generations  ago. 
When  we  look  ahead  the  distance  to  the  goal 
seems  yet  very  long;  when  we  look  back  we 
wonder  that  we  have  come  so  far.  At  the  be- 
ginning of  this  century  in  England  if  a  man 
attempted  to  kill  a  rabbit  he  could  be  put  to 
death  according  to  the  law  of  the  land.  Eighty 
years  ago  a  man  sold  his  wife  at  public  auction 

69 


Worfeingmen  and  tbe  Cburcb 

in  a  certain  English  town  for  two  and  sixpence. 
At  the  beginning  of  this  century  the  law  recog- 
nized, we  are  told,  two  hundred  and  twenty- 
three  offenses,  for  which  death  was  the  punish- 
ment. Within  the  memory  of  many  still  living 
slavery  was  prevalent  in  every  civilized  land. 
When  we  recall  these  facts  we  can  see  that 
the  world  is  improving,  things  are  getting  bet- 
ter, the  spirit  of  brotherhood  is  working.  It  is 
coming  down  out  of  the  region  of  theory  and 
sentiment  and  slowly  crystallizing;  too  slowly, 
some  of  us  think,  and  we  are  inclined  to  cry, 
"Oh,  Lord,  how  long,  how  long !"  But  let  us 
cheer  ourselves  with  the  thought  that  the  drift 
is  upward,  and  instead  of  murmuring  and  re- 
pining and  complaining,  do  what  we  can  to 
make  it  more  rapid.  If  we  really  believe  that 
a  pure,  true-hearted  shop  girl,  who  takes  care 
of  herself  and  the  old  mother  at  home,  is  more 
respectable  and  worthy  of  our  friendship  and 
admiration  than  the  frivolous,  flippant,  giggling 
flirt  who  does  nothing  for  herself  or  anybody 
else,  unless  it  be  the  dressmaker  and  milliner, 
let  us  show  it  in  both  word  and  act.  If  we  be- 
lieve that  an  honest  carpenter  is  better  than  a 
dishonest  bank  president,  or  a  faithful  and  con- 
scientious blacksmith  better  than  a  smooth, 

70 


•Qdorfcingmen  a^  tbe  Cburcb 

slick,  swindling  stock-gambler,  let  us  speak  it 
out.  Let  us  begin  the  practice  of  brotherhood 
in  our  own  neighborhood  and  set  things  right 
as  far  as  we  can  under  our  own  little  patch  of 
sky.  In  the  meantime,  whether  we  do  our  duty 
or  not,  the  idea  of  brotherhood  is  gathering 
volume  and  force  with  the  years.  The  wise 
men  of  the  world  are  talking  about  it  with  con- 
stantly increasing  seriousness.  They  have  seen 
its  star  and  are  looking  forward  with  bright 
anticipations.  It  has  inspired  some  of  the  best 
productions  of  literature.  Latter-day  poets 
have  sung  about  it  in  numbers  that  thrill  and 
inspire.  Robert  Burns  cast  his  eye  forward  and 
sang: 

"  For  a'  that  and  a'  that, 
It  s  coming  yet  for  a'  that, 
That  man  to  man  the  world  o'er. 
Shall  brothers  be  for  a'  that." 

And    Tennyson,    looking    into   the    future, 
swept  his  lyre  as  follows : 

"  For  I  dipt  into  the  future  far  as  human  eye  could 

see, 

Saw  the  vision  of  the  world  and  all  the  wonder  that 
should  be: 


Worfctnamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

Till  the  war  drum  throbbed  no  longer  and  the  battle 

flags  were  furled, 
In  the   Parliament  of  men,  the  Federation  of  the 

world." 

This  good  time  will  come,  but  only  by  the 
preaching  and  practice  of  our  Saviour's  words : 
"Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all 
thy  heart,  and  with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all 
thy  mind,  and  with  all  thy  strength,  and  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself."  Everything  else  will  fail. 
Everything  lacks  leverage  enough  to  lift  men 
up  to  the  plane  of  brotherhood ;  but  love  never 
faileth.  I  thank  God  that  in  spite  of  the 
shadows  that  still  hang  over  the  earth,  in  spite 
of  wrongs  and  cruelties  and  oppressions, 

"  The  days  are  hastening  on, 
By  prophet  bards  foretold, 
When  with  the  ever  circling  years 
Comes  round  the  age  of  gold, 
When  peace  shall  over  all  the  earth 
Its  ancient  splendors  fling, 
And  the  whole  world  give  back  the  song 
Which  now  the  angels  sing." 


V. 


WORKINGMEN  AND  PERSONAL  CON- 
TACT. 


w 


E  ought  to  know  each  other  better. 
Ignorance  is  the  mother  of  a  vast  deal 
of  prejudice  and  jealousy.  Church 
people  form  wrong  impressions  of 
those  who  do  not  go  to  church,  and  those  who 
do  not  go  to  church  form  wrong  impressions  of 
church  people,  because  they  are  strangers  to 
each  other.  What  we  need  is  a  better  and 
broader  mutual  acquaintance. 

There  is  an  old  legend  of  a  general  who  one 
time  found  his  troops  disheartened.  He  be- 
lieved it  was  owing  to  the  fact  that  they  did 
not  realize  how  close  they  were  to  other  di- 
visions of  the  same  army  on  account  of  a  dense 
growth  of  small  trees  and  shrubbery.  Orders, 
therefore,  were  given  to  "burn  the  brushwood." 
It  was  done,  and  they  saw  that  they  were  not 
isolated,  as  they  had  supposed,  but  were  part 
of  one  great  company.  The  result  was  that 
their  courage  revived  and  they  went  forward 

73 


TKHorfcin$men  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

in  triumph.  So  nothing  is  more  needed  to-day 
than  to  burn  the  brushwood  between  the  work- 
ingmen  and  the  church — the  brushwood  of 
prejudice  and  mistrust  and  separation.  They 
have  far  more  in  common  than  they  think. 
Vast  multitudes  of  them  belong  to  the  same 
army  and  are  under  the  same  great  captain.  But 
they  stand  apart  because  of  the  brushwood  of 
caste  and  class  and  social  distinctions,  on  one 
side,  and  jealousy  and  over-sensitiveness,  on 
the  other.  Let  it  be  burned  away  in  the  glow 
of  united  song  and  in  the  enthusiasm  of  com- 
mon worship,  and  new  hope  and  courage  will 
come  into  the  hearts  of  all  concerned. 

"But  Jesus  took  him  by  the  hand  and  lifted 
him  up,  and  he  arose."  The  great  problem  of 
problems  is  evermore  the  saving  of  men,  how 
to  deliver  them  from  sin,  from  the  bondage  of 
the  flesh,  and  bring  them  into  right  relations 
with  themselves  and  with  God.  To  know  the 
how  I  believe  we  must  go  back  to  Jesus  of 
Nazareth. 

How  did  Christ  save  men?  "He  took  him 
by  the  hand  and  lifted  him  up,  and  he  arose." 
One  day  there  came  a  leper,  a  poor  miserable 
wreck  and  outcast,  and  said,  "Lord,  if  thou 
wilt  thou  canst  make  me  clean."  And  Jesus 

74 


TKIlorftfnomen  anfc  tbe  Cburcb 

put  forth  his  hand  and  touched  him,  saying, 
"I  will ;  be  thou  clean."  When  he  came 
into  Peter's  house  and  found  his  mother- 
in-law  sick  with  a  fever,  "he  touched  her  hand, 
and  the  fever  left  her."  In  answer  to  the 
prayer  of  the  blind  men  who  cried,  "Thou  son 
of  David,  have  mercy  on  us,"  he  "touched  their 
eyes,  saying,  according  to  your  faith  be  it  unto 
you."  Meeting  a  funeral  procession  one  day  he 
touched  the  bier  and  gave  a  mother  back  her 
son. 

He  healed  and  saved  by  personal  contact, 
not  by  proxy.  He  did  not  stay  in  heaven  and 
send  a  committee  to  attend  to  the  work  of  re- 
demption. It  does  not  require  a  very  large 
stretch  of  fancy,  as  Dr.  Parkhurst  suggests,  to 
imagine  some  of  the  angels  who  were  not  in 
the  salvation  business  venturing  to  remonstrate 
with  him  for  resolving  to  bring  himself  into 
contact  with  a  world  over  which  the  serpent 
had  so  long  dragged  his  slimy  way,  and  sug- 
gesting that  he  send  a  deputation  down  to  see 
what  could  be  done  and  report  progress.  But 
he  didn't  do  it.  He  came  himself  and  brought 
his  holy  nature  into  the  closest  possible  touch 
with  a  sin-reeking  humanity. 

He  reached  after  individuals.    The  story  of 

75 


TKttorfcinamen  anD  tbe  Cburcb 

his  life  is  full  of  this  fact.  Some  of  his  most 
fruitful  and  wonderful  talks  were  made  to  an 
audience  of  one.  Recall  the  case  of  the  woman 
at  the  well,  and  of  Nicodemus  by  night.  So 
the  early  disciples  copied  him  very  closely.  It 
was  man  to  man  with  them,  individual  going 
after  individual.  Hence  their  remarkable  suc- 
cess. They  used  the  buttonhole  power,  and 
nothing  wins  like  that  in  any  campaign, 
whether  political  or  religious. 

If  a  man  wanted  to  fill  a  thousand  bottles 
with  water  he  would  hardly  stand  off  at  a  long 
distance  with  the  hose  and  sprinkle  it  over 
them.  He  would  take  one  bottle  at  a  time  by 
the  neck  and  fill  it,  and  then  the  next,  and  so 
on  till  the  work  was  done.  The  great  difficulty 
with  us  in  our  church  work  is  that  we  are  play- 
ing the  hose  upon  the  bottles  from  afar.  The 
space  between  them  and  us  is  so  great  that  we 
cannot  even  see  whether  the  stoppers  are  out. 
It  is  a  great  waste  of  water  and  force. 

The  church  must  imitate  the  Lord's  example 
or  fail.  We  may  hold  conventions  and  talk 
and  theorize  about  how  to  reach  the  masses 
and  save  them  just  as  long  and  learnedly  as  we 
please,  but  until  we  adopt  the  simple,  sensible, 


Morfcinamen  anJ>  tbe  Cburcb 

plan  of  Him  of  Galilee  it  will  all  end  in  speech- 
making  and  religious  smoke. 

There  must,  of  course,  be  organization.  A 
certain  amount  of  machinery  is  indispensable. 
All  life,  of  whatever  sort,  manifests  itself 
through  some  kind  of  organism.  Only  dead 
things  stand  apart  without  organic  structure. 
But  organization,  nevertheless,  becomes  a  curse 
when  it  is  allowed  to  take  the  place  of  personal 
sympathy  and  direct  contact,  as  it  often  does. 
The  temptation  here  is  strong  and  subtle. 

It  is  so  much  easier  to  manifest  a  little  con- 
cern through  the  machine  than  to  go  yourself. 
Hence  we  touch  the  masses  somewhat  gingerly 
through  the  machine.  We  do  salvation  by  com- 
mittees. There  is  very  little  hand-to-hand, 
face-to-face,  personal  work.  The  unit  is  lost 
sight  of.  We  think  of  the  city,  but  not  of  a 
single  household.  We  think  of  the  multitude, 
but  not  of  the  individual  man.  Some  blunt- 
spoken  infidel  charges  us  with  indifference  to 
souls,  and  we  point  him  to  our  fine  churches 
and  our  splendid  organizations  and  movements. 
But  we  need  to  be  careful.  There  is  no  better 
place  in  all  the  world  to  shelve  responsibility 
and  hoodwink  conscience  and  freeze  up  the 


77 


TKttorfefnamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

streams  of  spiritual  lift  than  to  bury  ourselves 
in  some  church  society.  Interest  in  an  institu- 
tion, though  it  were  the  best  the  sun  ever 
shone  upon,  cannot  absolve  us  from  the  sin 
of  neglecting  the  individual.  There  are  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  church  members  who 
have  never  made  any  direct,  personal  effort  to 
lead  a  soul  to  Christ.  They  have  buttonholed 
men  and  asked  them  to  vote  this  or  that  ticket. 
They  have  buttonholed  them  in  the  interests 
of  some  entertainment  or  building  enterprise, 
but  never  with  a  view  of  bringing  them  into  the 
kingdom.  When  it  comes  to  the  supremely  im- 
portant matter  of  reaching  men  for  God  they 
are  willing  to  work  through  the  contribution 
box,  or  through  some  agent  or  society,  but  not 
to  personally  take  men  by  the  hand  and  lift 
them  up.  What  they  give  or  do  through  the 
machine  is  made  a  substitute  for  individual 
service.  There  runs  a  story  to  the  effect  that 
Pope  Innocent  IV  was  one  time  counting  over 
a  large  sum  of  money  which  had  come  to  him 
in  coin.  While  thus  ingaged  St.  Thomas 
Aquinas  was  ushered  in.  "You  see,"  said  the 
Pope,  "that  the  church  can  no  longer  say  with 
St.  Peter,  'Silver  and  gold  have  I  none.'  "  To 
which  the  other  replied :  "Neither  can  she  any 

78 


TWlorfeinomen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

longer  say  with  him,  'In  the  name  of  Jesus 
Christ  of  Nazareth,  rise  up  and  walk.' "  It  is 
the  personal  touch  that  lays  hold  of  men  and 
lifts  them  up,  and  this  power  the  church  is  los- 
ing by  too  much  reliance  upon  organization. 

Hence  she  needs  to  imitate  the  Lord's  exam- 
ple for  her  own  sake.  If  many  of  her  members 
are  weak,  if  their  faith  has  no  roots,  if  the 
Bible  is  a  dull  book  to  them,  if  they  walk  so 
far  over  on  the  world's  territory  that  they  have 
become  thoroughly  acclimated,  if  they  tone 
down  the  gospel  and  take  all  the  meaning  out 
of  the  precepts  of  Jesus  to  suit  their  own  liv- 
ing, it  is  just  because  they  are  personally  in- 
active in  Christian  work.  All  their  concern  for 
the  progress  of  Christ's  kingdom,  if  they  hap- 
pen to  have  any,  is  manifested  vicariously 
through  some  hired  servant  or  some  society, 
and  so  they  pine  away  in  spiritual  poverty  and 
invalidism.  If  I  am  suffering  with  indigestion 
and  dyspepsia  and  dropping  into  a  premature 
grave  for  lack  of  physical  exercise  it  will  do 
me  no  good  to  hire  an  athlete  to  do  it  for  me. 
He  may  be  very  clever,  but  I  must  exercise  for 
myself  or  pay  the  penalty.  It  is  not  otherwise 
in  the  Christian  church.  I  cannot  live  as  a 
Christian  without  spiritual  activity,  and  no  one 

79 


TKRorfctttfltnen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

can  perform  my  spiritual  activities  for  me. 
Hence,  I  say,  the  church  must  take  men  by  the 
hand,  through  her  membership,  and  lift  them 
up  to  save  herself.  I 

We  talk  about  reaching  the  people  and  in- 
dulge in  much  speechmaking  over  the  problems 
involved.  But  there  really  is  no  problem  about 
it.  It  is  the  simplest  thing  in  the  world.  Make 
our  churches  warm,  make  them  sunny  with 
brotherliness,  and  good-will,  fill  them  with  the 
tender  and  loving  compassionate  spirit  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth  from  pulpit  to  vestibule,  ban- 
ish all  stiffness  and  iciness  from  them,  let  wel- 
come to  the  stranger,  to  the  poor  and  weary 
and  burdened,  be  written  in  every  face  and 
shine  in  every  eye,  and  the  masses  will  come. 
Men  who  are  shivering  in  the  north  wind  do 
not  need  to  be  coaxed  to  a  fire,  and  I  hold  that 
a  truly  warm-hearted,  big-souled  church  will 
never  lack  all  the  people  its  four  walls  will  ac- 
commodate. Only  let  the  warmth  be  genuine, 
let  it  be  honest,  and  not  put  on  for  the  occasion, 
as  we  put  on  our  Sunday  clothes,  and  they  will 
come  and  go  away  with  new  hope  stirring  in 
their  breasts  and  new  music  singing  in  their 
souls. 

You  have  read,  I  suppose,  about  the  man 

80 


Worfefnamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

who  was  robbed  one  day  on  the  Jericho  road 
and  beaten  and  left  to  die  by  the  way  side,  and 
how  he  was  rescued  by  a  good  Samaritan.  Let 
us  follow  him  in  imagination  up  to  Jerusalem. 
Arriving  there  he  tells  his  family  about  it.  He 
tells  them  about  the  cold  and  cruel  neglect  of 
the  priest  and  Levite  who  passed  by  on  the 
other  side,  and  about  the  big-hearted  man  who 
finally  came  along  and  picked  him  up  and  took 
him  to  an  inn  and  paid  his  bills  and  did  every- 
thing to  help  him.  The  Sabbath  comes  and  they 
get  ready  for  church.  They  enter  the  temple 
and  see  a  man  in  splendid  robes  and  jewels 
who  is  evidently  going  to  officiate.  The  man 
who  was  robbed  says  to  his  family,  "That  is  the 
priest  who  saw  me  bleeding  and  dying  and 
passed  by  on  the  other  side.  I  cannot  worship 
here,  let  us  go."  They  pass  out  into  the  outer 
court  and  see  another  dressed  in  temple  robes. 
Drawing  near  the  father  remarks,  "That  is  the 
Levite  who  saw  me  suffering  on  the  Jericho 
road  and  never  raised  a  hand  to  help  me.  We 
can't  stay  here."  Then  his  wife  and  children 
say,  "Come,  let  us  find  the  Good  Samaritan's 
church.  Where  does  he  worship?"  And  the 
father  answers,  "Very  likely  he  worships  in 
some  cave,  or  dark  and  dismal  place  where  the 
6  81 


Worfcingmen  anO  tbe  Cburcb 

seats  are  hard  and  everything  unattractive. 
The  Samaritans,  you  know,  are  low-down  peo- 
ple. The  Jews  have  no  dealings  with  the  Sa- 
maritans." They  reply,  "No  matter,  no  mat- 
ter, that  man  has  a  heart.  He  took  you  by  the 
hand  and  lifted  you  up.  Let  us  find  the  Good 
Samaritan's  church." 

Fellow-men,  that  is  the  church  the  people 
will  find.  That  is  the  church  whose  courts  will 
be  thronged,  and  that  is  the  church  that  is  go- 
ing to  live  and  grow  and  triumph.  If  our 
churches  are  to  stand  and  reach  the  people  and 
commend  themselves  to  God,  their  members 
must  be  good  Samaritans  and  put  forth  their 
hands  to  rescue  men  and  women  and  save  the 
lost,  not  by  doing  away  with  committees  and  so- 
cieties, but  by  more  personal  contact. 

It  is  the  church  that  goes  down  among  the 
people  that  finds  Christ.  In  this  connection 
there  come  to  me  the.  following  lines,  which 
express  a  thought  that  will  bear  pondering : 

"  The  parish  priest  of  Austerity 
Climbed  up  in  a  high  church  steeple 

To  be  nearer  God, 

So  that  he  might  hand  his  word  down 
To  his  people: 


82 


Morfeingmen  an&  tbe  Clnircb 

And  in  sermon  script 
He  daily  wrote 
What  he  thought  was  sent  from  heaven. 

And  he  dropt  this  down 
On  his  people's  heads 
Two  times  one  day  in  seven. 
In  his  age  God  said, 
'  Come  down  and  die.' 
And  he  called  from  out  the  steeple, 

'  Where  art  thou,  Lord? ' 
And  the  Lord  replied, 
'  Down  here  among  my  people.'  " 

And  surely  if  the  church  needs  to  imitate 
the  Lord's  example  to  preserve  her  own  life 
and  power  she  needs  to  do  it  for  the  world's 
sake.  She  can  save  men  in  no  other  way.  She 
must  do  as  Jesus  did.  It  never  can  be  done  at 
arm's  length. 

A  story  is  told  of  a  man  who  went  into  the 
mountains  to  organize  a  Sunday  school.  Going 
through  a  clearing  he  met  a  rough-looking  lad, 
and,  asking  him  to  sit  with  him  on  a  log,  gave 
the  boy  a  picture  and  said,  "We  are  going  to 
have  a  nice  Sunday  school,  and  we  want  all  the 
boys  to  be  in  it;  you'll  come  and  join  us  to- 
night, won't  you?" 

"No,"  said  the  boy.  Then  the  missionary 
took  out  a  picture  paper,  and  putting  his  arm 

83 


tenderly  around  the  boy  and  telling  him  about 
the  picture  papers  and  books  which  were  tosbe 
had  at  the  Sunday  school,  said  confidingly: 
"You'll  come  and  get  some  of  these  papers  and 
books,  won't  you  ?"  "No,"  blurted  out  the  boy. 
But  the  missionary  could  sing  sweetly;  he 
would  try  music.  So  he  sang  some  verses  of  a 
beautiful  hymn,  and  then  said:  "We  are  go- 
ing to  have  such  singing  as  that  in  the  Sunday 
school;  won't  you  come  and  hear  it  and  learn 
to  sing  for  yourself?"  "No,  I  will  not,"  said 
the  boy.  The  man  thought  he  was  beaten.  He 
arose  to  go.  "Say,"  called  out  the  boy,  "are 
you  going  to  be  there?"  "Yes,  I'll  be  there," 
said  the  missionary.  "Then  I'll  come,"  re- 
sponded the  boy.  It  was  not  the  pictures,  it 
was  not  the  books,  it  was  not  the  music,  it  was 
the  man  who  did  it.  By  taking  the  boy  by  the 
hand  and  throwing  an  arm  around  him  he  won 
his  heart  and  started  him  on  a  better  life. 

And  "men  are  only  boys  grown  tall.''  They 
cannot  be  reached  by  church  services  and  insti- 
tutionalisms.  These  are  helps,  and  oftentimes 
efficient  helps,  but  unless  they  are  followed  up 
by  the  touch  of  personal  love  and  brotherliness 
they  will  fail.  "Pure  religion  and  undefiled^' 
before  God  and  the  Father  is  something  more 

84 


'Qdorftingmen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

than  going  to  church  and  paying  pew  rents  and 
supporting  societies ;  it  is  to  visit  the  fatherless 
and  the  widow  in  their  affliction  and  to  keep 
ourselves  unspotted  from  the  world.  Go  among 
them.  The  struggling,  suffering  sons  and 
daughters  of  men  do  not  want  ours,  but  us.  A 
broken  heart  cannot  be  healed  with  a  check- 
book. A  soup  ticket  will  not  take  the  place  of 
sympathy.  Alms  are  no  substitute  for  a  friend. 
A  board  of  charity  or  a  benevolent  association 
cannot  stand  in  lieu  of  personal  compassion. 
Those  who  are  down  want  to  see  and  feel  the 
hand  of  charity.  A  little  love,  a  little  brother- 
ly, sisterly  interest,  a  little  actual  contact,  that 
is  what  the  people  want.  Nothing  else  can  win 
them  to  the  church  and  keep  them  there. 

There  is  not  very  much  uplifting  power,  not 
very  much  that  will  commend  religion,  in  that 
kind  of  charity  that  never  comes  within  touch- 
ing distance.  Men  may  be  fed  and  their  bodies 
clothed  by  proxy ;  they  may  be  kept  from  phys- 
ical destitution  by  proxy;  but  proxy  cannot 
sweep  the  shadows  from  the  soul,  or  soothe  its 
anguish,  or  bind  up  a  broken  spirit.  The  poor 
children  of  misfortune,  the  wronged,  the  op- 
pressed, multitudes  of  whom  are  crowded  to  the 
wall  by  cruel  and  merciless  social  conditions, 

85 


Worfcfnsmen  a^  tbe  Cburcb 

want  the  magic  of  a  living  presence ;  they  want 
to  hear  a  pitying  word,  they  want  to  see  the 
tear  of  companionship  on  the  cheek,  they  want 
someone  to  take  them  by  the  hand.  This  is  the 
way  to  be  Christs  to  the  people.  So  our  Sav- 
iour did.  "Jesus  took  him  by  the  hand  and 
lifted  him  up,  and  he  arose."  The  tides  of  in- 
finite love  poured  through  our  Lord's  hand  into 
the  poor  man's  breast  and  thrilled  him  with  the 
rapture  of  a  liberated  life,  "and  he  arose." 

All  around  the  masses  are  saying :  "Give  us 
your  hand.  Let  us  feel  the  pulse  and  throb  of 
Christian  love."  And  if  we  did  but  do  it  how 
many  would  be  saved.  Many  a  young  man 
comes  into  the  city  and  is  ruined  because  there 
is  no  one  to  take  him  by  the  hand.  Many  a 
workingman  drifts  away  on  the  current  of  sin, 
many  a  perplexed  soul  plunges  into  the  gulf 
of  despair  and  is  lost,  because  there  is  no  one 
to  take  him  by.  the  hand.  May  God  make  us 
all  more  tender,  more  helpful  and  sympathetic. 
Far  away  yonder  by  the  Nile,  when  the  trav- 
eler wants  to  climb  the  pyramids,  there  are 
Arabs  to  help  him  up  step  by  step  till  he  reaches 
the  top  and  breathes  the  pure  air  and  has  the 
grand  outlook.  He  never  could  get  up  himself. 
His  strength  would  fail  before  he  got  half  way 

86 


TOlorftfn0men  a^  tbe  Cburcb 

to  the  top,  and  he  would  be  in  danger  of  falling 
back  to  destruction.  But  the  Arabs  take  him 
by  the  hand  and  lift  him  up,  and  soon  he  stands 
in  triumph  on  the  summit.  So  on  every  side 
there  are  those  who  are  struggling  up.  They 
need  help,  or  they  will  never  make  it.  There 
they  are,  poor  afflicted  ones,  not  able  to  get  up 
another  step,  discouraged,  despondent,  almost 
despairing.  As  we  have  opportunity  let  us 
give  them  a  hand. 

I  am  very  far  from  being  in  the  dark  in 
talking  on  these  subjects.  If  to  toil  as  a  car- 
penter, to  hammer  at  the  anvil,  to  follow  the 
plow,  to  delve  in  the  mine,  to  chop  wood  by  the 
cord,  to  drive  team,  to  work  in  the  lumber 
woods,  to  do  all  sorts  of  manual  labor — if  to 
toil  for  years  along  these  lines  can  teach  a  man 
anything,  then  I  know  what  it  is  to  be  a  work- 
ingman,  for  I  have  done  all  these  things.  I 
know  the  workingman's  hardships  and  strug- 
gles and  privations.  I  know  that  he  often  has 
to  revolve  in  a  very  small  world  and  carry 
burdens  that  are  crushing.  I  have  come  along 
that  road,  and  know  how  rough  and  steep  it  is 
sometimes.  And  when  I  was  in  it  nothing 
ever  helped  me  so  much  as  a  little  sympathy, 
a  little  brotherly  love.  From  my  own  expe- 
87 


Worfctnamen  an&  tbe  Cburcb 

rience  I  know  that  this  is  what  we  all  want, 
and  especially  those  of  you  who  are  working- 
men.  Some  of  you  are  out  of  employment  and 
cannot  get  it.  Some  of  you  are  fighting  hard 
to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  Some  of  you 
are  perplexed  and  worn-out.  Some  of  you  see 
no  hope  in  the  future,  no  prospect  of  bettering 
your  condition,  and  are  discouraged.  Some  of 
you  are  in  sorrow  over  a  dear  one  that  has 
fallen.  Some  of  you  are  reaping  the  bitter 
fruit  of  your  own  misdoing. 

But  whatever  may  be  your  trouble,  you  want 
sympathy.  You  thirst  for  it  as  the  heart  pant- 
eth  after  the  water-brooks.  Even  human  sym- 
pathy is  good.  It  has  helped  us  up  many  a 
steep  hill,  and  we  thank  God  for  every  remem- 
brance of  it.  But  it  is  not  enough.  It  cannot 
reach  the  root  of  our  complaint.  What  we 
want — what  we  must  have — is  a  perfect  sym- 
pathy, a  sympathy  that  will  encompass  our 
whole  nature,  a  sympathy  that  will  pour  its 
balm  into  every  wound  of  our  souls,  a  sympa- 
thy that  will  go  right  down  into  the  solitudes 
of  our  being,  where  no  footfall  of  man  can  ever 
be  heard,  and  breathe  life  and  hope  and  sweet- 
ness there.  We  want  to  be  loved  by  some  heart 
great  enough  to  forgive  our  sins,  touched  by 
8S 


Worfcinamen  anfc  tbe  (Tburcb 

some  hand  strong  enough  to  lift  us  up,  and  en- 
circled by  some  arm  that  is  tender  and  mighty. 
We  want  some  one  who  will  not  chide  us  when 
we  fall,  some  one  who  knows  the  road  we  have 
to  travel,  because  he  has  gone  over  it  himself, 
some  one  who  has  been  wounded  and  has  felt 
the  sting  of  pain  and  drained  the  bitter  cup. 
Let  us  bless  God  that  we  have  such  a  one,  bone 
of  our  bone,  and  flesh  of  our  flesh,  our  friend, 
our  brother,  our  Saviour.  To  this  Jesus  I  in- 
vite you  everyone.  Think  of  the  hands  that 
were  blistered,  think  of  the  back  that  ached, 
think  of  the  side  that  was  opened,  think  of  the 
brow  that  wore  the  thorns — think  of  the  Work- 
ingman  of  Galilee,  of  his  identity  with  all  who 
toil  and  suffer,  of  his  sympathy,  which  can  be 
measured  only  by  the  Cross,  of  his  forgiving 
love,  and  resolve  here  and  now  to  let  him  take 
you  by  the  hand  and  lift  you  up. 


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